I'll Be Good For You
by akane47
Summary: The real Go Mi-nam gets roped into a scheme to protect his bandmates' - and his sister's - privacy from the journalist hired to write a book about AN JELL. However, falling for her wasn't part of the plan. Follows "This Above All."
1. Here's to the Night

**Disclaimer:** The AN JELL-verse belongs to the Hong sisters, creators of _You're_ _Beautiful_, and _The Housemaid_ to whoever wrote and produced the movie. The title of this fic comes from a song by NYSYNC. The Hankuk University of Foreign Studies, Genghis Khan and his mother (who was named Hoelun, which I've always found lovely) all belong to themselves. I only own Jeremy's last name and the staff of _Inside Showbiz_.

**Author's Notes:** I'm back! Did you miss me? :D

**I'LL BE GOOD FOR YOU**

_Chapter One — Here's to the Night (Eve 6)_

The car came to a stop and sharply taloned hands reached for him in the darkness.

"Good night, oppa..." a voice cooed.

Since he was over this date hours ago, Go Mi-nam let the hands catch him just long enough to plant a brief kiss on the girl's lips before unfastening his seatbelt and hightailing it out of the car. "'Night, In-hee," he said as he slammed the door shut. "Thanks for the ride."

"Hey!" There was a humming sound as the passenger-side window was lowered and his date for the night peered at him through the opening. "You're a top star now. When are you going to get your own car?"

He flashed her his trademark devil-may-care grin. "When you stop giving me rides."

Mi-nam made his way to the front door without another backward glance and heard her drive off as he let himself in. Inside, he found his bandmate Jeremy Maitland standing at the refrigerator, getting himself a snack. "Hey," he greeted the blond boy as he kicked off his shoes. "Isn't it past your bedtime?"

Jeremy looked up in the middle of pouring himself a glass of milk and made a face at him. "You're not the only one who had a date tonight."

_"Ooooh."_ Mi-nam joined him in the kitchen and helped himself to a cookie from the plate on the table. "And how is the lovely Su-jin doing these days? Has she agreed to take you back as her boyfriend yet?"

"No" was the grumpy reply.

Moon Su-jin was Jeremy's on-again, off-again girlfriend. Mi-nam had no idea what was going on with those two, but he did hope that Su-jin would take Jeremy back permanently. She was a cool girl and Jeremy seemed to really like her. Besides, she and his wacky bandmate actually made a good couple.

Of course, he wasn't going to say so out loud. "That's too bad," he said instead. "On the other hand, maybe not. I've been thinking of going after Su-jin myself."

(He wasn't, really; at least, not seriously. Mi-nam just flirted with her sometimes — playfully, so that everyone knew that he was only joking — to tease Jeremy, and maybe get the blond boy to man up and do something to make Su-jin take him back.)

"Well, stop it," Jeremy told him flatly. "You're going after Su-jin over my dead body."

"I had a feeling that was what it was going to take. Don't worry, since I can't play the drums, you get to live a little while longer." Grinning good-naturedly, he tossed the last bite of his cookie up in the air and managed to catch it in his mouth. "'Night."

* * *

Mi-nam went upstairs to his bedroom, where he shed his leather jacket and flopped down on his bed. It was very late, but he was too wound up to sleep. He could have stayed longer at the club, but there had been too many so-called reporters hanging around. There wasn't much point in staying.

His eye fell on the picture of his mother smiling at him from his bedside. Tonight, Omma's smile seemed to have a wry twist to it, as if wondering what mischief he had got up to this time. The thought made Mi-nam grin; if she had lived long enough to raise him and his twin sister, Mi-nyeo, she probably would have smiled at him that way _a lot_.

He reached into his pocket and pulled out his cell phone, dialing Mi-nyeo's number. It was only when she didn't pick up and he got directed to her voice mail service that he remembered that she was probably already fast asleep. Unlike him, his sister was not a musician, although she had the talent for it; rather, she taught pre-school at an orphanage just outside Seoul and wasn't likely to keep the same hours as he. Well, since he was already on the line, he might as well leave her a message anyway.

"Hi, Mi-nyeo, it's me," he said at the tone. "I just wanted to wish you good night, but I guess it's too late for that. I hope you're sleeping well. Don't forget that I'm coming to visit you this weekend — Mother Superior will probably need a warning." He chuckled. "I guess that's it for now. Bye."

* * *

The next day appeared to be just like any other day at the AN Entertainment offices. Staffers flashing their ID cards rushed around on official business. Delivery people came and went, bearing important documents or gifts, the latter mostly for AN JELL, the biggest name in the agency's stable and Korea's most popular band. Completing the picture were the droves of fans camped outside, hoping to see their idols in person.

"I can't stay very long today," said one fan, a plump girl wearing an angel-wing hairband. "My mother will kill me if she found out I was skipping school again."

"Bite your tongue!" her friend snapped. "You don't think our oppas deserve our time and devotion? Are you a disloyal fan?"

"No... just one who doesn't want to be dead."

Through this busy scene charged a slender, bespectacled young woman. Unheeding of the milling crowds around her, she strode towards the entrance of the building, the heels of her boots clicking purposefully on the pavement. However, before she could even reach the doors, a pair of security guards barred her way. "I have an appointment with President Ahn Sung-chan at eleven-thirty," she said before any of them could speak.

"What kind of business would you have with President Ahn?" the shorter one asked suspiciously.

"It's about a book project," she replied, trying to keep the annoyance from her voice. The guards were only doing their job, she reminded herself, but their zeal just might make her late for her appointment. "I'm the writer that he hired."

The taller guard looked down at her dubiously. (OK, so maybe she was on the short side, but did he really think she was a fan trying to sneak in?) "Could we see some identification?" he asked.

"Honestly..." With an impatient sigh, she reached into her slim computer bag and pulled out her company ID card. _Park Oh-lan,_ it read, next to the pale oval of her face. _Reporter, __Inside Showbiz Magazine._ "I hate to rush things," Oh-lan told the pair, "but you're making me late. Would you like me to call Ms. Jeung so you can check with her whether the President is truly expecting me?"

To her surprise, both security guards backtracked when she mentioned President Ahn's secretary. "Ah... that won't be necessary, miss," said the taller guard, his large Adam's apple moving visibly as he swallowed. "Please, come in."

"Thank you." Without anyone left to stand in her way, Oh-lan entered the building and located the President's office.

The formidable Ms. Jeung was at her desk outside the door. Getting to her feet, the severe-looking woman bowed politely when Oh-lan identified herself. "The President is waiting for you."

"Thank you." She gave the secretary a bow in return, figuring that if she was going to do business with AN Entertainment, then she had to tread carefully around this one.

However, it seemed that she wouldn't have to worry when it came to Ahn Sung-chan himself. In contrast to Ms. Jeung, the head of AN Entertainment was exceedingly gregarious. "Ah, Reporter Park!" he greeted her with an expansive gesture of welcome. "It's an honor to meet you! Please, have a seat! I'm a very big fan of your work," he added as Ms. Jeung made a brief reappearance to bring in a tray of drinks.

"You're too kind, President Ahn," Oh-lan replied modestly. He definitely was; although she regularly wrote articles for _Inside Showbiz_ and had already been given rather challenging assignments, the pieces that appeared in the magazine were far from her best work.

_"No, no, no,"_ he told her in English. "I know talent when I see it. After all, I put AN JELL together, right?" He chuckled jovially. "Of course, Editor Park recommended you very highly, too. He said you were a true professional, hardworking and very bright."

She smiled wordlessly. Modesty aside, those things were true. However, even if they weren't, there was a chance that Editor Park would still say so; he was Oh-lan's uncle.

"Now, about the project," President Ahn said in a more businesslike tone that prompted Oh-lan to bring out her notepad and pen. "Essentially, I want the book to be about AN JELL's creative process and the making of their new album. I want it to show that the boys are maturing into serious musicians."

"Serious musicians," Oh-lan repeated, nodding as she took notes.

"I know that AN JELL already stands out from the other idol bands — otherwise, they wouldn't have stayed on top for all these years. But I want the book to show that they have the souls of artists as well."

"I hope I'll be able to do justice to your vision." She hoped she sounded humble, not skeptical. She had interviewed a few idol bands before and thus had some idea of what they were like behind the scenes. However, she was not going to judge AN JELL without even meeting them first. Even if they didn't turn out to be the serious, committed musicians that their manager thought they were, she was sure that she could still find a good story to tell.

President Ahn smiled at her. "I have faith that you will. Now, shall we review the contract and discuss the business side of things?"

* * *

After her meeting, Oh-lan returned to the _Inside Showbiz_ offices in good spirits. Overall, the AN JELL book project seemed to be a win-win proposition for her. Even though her advance wasn't that big because of her status as a fledgling writer, she still had a nice check coming from AN Entertainment in a few weeks and was promised a share of the profits, besides. She would still be writing the occasional article for _Inside Showbiz_, but most of her time would be spent away from the office and in the field, working on the AN JELL book. Best of all, Oh-lan would be credited as the author, which would be a major feather in her cap indeed.

"Back so soon, Reporter Park?" a hateful voice drawled as Oh-lan reached her desk. "How was your little meeting?"

Cursing mentally, she pasted on a bright smile and turned to face the speaker — Kim Soon-ok, a snobby young man several years older than she and one of the senior reporters on the staff. "It went very well, Reporter Kim," she replied sweetly. "Thank you for asking."

"Judging from the smile on your face," he remarked, arching an eyebrow, "it looks like you got yourself a good deal."

"It was very well-negotiated," Oh-lan said diplomatically. She booted up her computer and hoped Soon-ok would shut up. Even though he was a senior, she wasn't sure how much more of his backhanded compliments and inappropriate questions she could take.

Of course, he didn't. "That's great news. Congratulations." Soon-ok smiled, although to her it looked more like a sneer. "It must be nice to have such an extensive network so early in your career."

"Yoo-hoo, Reporter Kim!" another voice called suddenly, sparing Oh-lan from having to think of an answer. Yoon In-jung, one of _Inside Showbiz_'s staff photographers, approached breathlessly, the tips of his spiky bleached-blond hairdo quivering. "Reporter Kim, the pictures from your interview with the cast of _The Housemaid_ are ready. Would you care to look at them and help us choose which ones go best with your article?"

"I'll be right there," the senior reporter answered, and shot Oh-lan a superior look. "I hate to cut this short, Reporter Park, but I'm sure you understand that for the rest of us, the show must go on."

"Of course," she replied in a falsely pleasant voice. "I'm sure your article will be just amazing."

"Don't mind him, noona," In-jung whispered to her when Soon-ok had strutted away towards the photo department. "He's really jealous and telling everyone that you got chosen for the AN JELL project because you're related to Editor Park, but we all know better."

Oh-lan gave him a wan smile. "Thanks, In-jung. I'll keep that in mind."

The youthful photographer raised his fists in the "fighting!" gesture before rushing off to help Soon-ok choose pictures.

When In-jung was gone, she undid the tight braid that had contained her uncontrollably wavy hair — the unfortunate result of a bad perm — and massaged her scalp, sighing heavily. She needed to finish a pending assignment in order to start research for the book, but first she had to get rid of the bad mood brought on by exchanging "pleasantries" with her jealous co-worker. Oh-lan reached into her bag and pulled out her cell phone.

Her mother picked up on the third ring. "This is Han Yang-gae," she said, somewhat absently.

"Omma, it's me. Am I calling at a bad time?" Her parents, both professors at the Hankuk University of Foreign Studies in Yongin, routinely gave her their class schedules at the start of the school year, but she tried not to bother them during working hours.

"No, I was just filling out some paperwork. It can wait," Professor Han said, sounding less distracted now. "What is it? How are you?"

"I'm fine. I just wanted to tell you that I signed the contract for the book project today."

"That's wonderful! Your father showed the draft you sent us to Professor Shim from the International Business department, and she said that the terms they gave you were very good. When do you start?"

"As soon as I finish this article I'm working on, I guess," Oh-lan said as she opened the file. "I'll still be doing some work for the magazine, but Uncle Chung-ho said he'll lessen my workload so I can focus on the book."

"That was nice of him. Don't forget to thank him for all these opportunities he's giving you."

"I won't." She paused, glancing around cautiously to make sure no one was eavesdropping, then went on in a hushed voice. "Omma... I'm a little nervous about this project."

"You'll do well," Professor Han assured her, "as always. Didn't your uncle recommend _you_ to the company, out of all his writers?"

"That didn't sit very well with some of the senior reporters."

"Too bad for them," her mother said dismissively. "They're grumbling about nepotism and other such nonsense, aren't they? Has anyone complained to your uncle?"

"Well, no, I don't think so, but—"

"That's because they know that they don't have any firm grounds for complaint, other than the fact that you're Park Chung-ho's niece. Your uncle can always argue that he chose you for your professional behavior and writing skills, both of which you definitely have." A sigh came over the line. "You're a very good writer, Oh-lan. I wish I could go into more detail like your father does, but as you know, literature is his area of expertise, not mine."

She smiled. "Is Appa still in Tokyo?"

"Yes, the conference ends tomorrow. We'll have dinner at home the night after he gets back."

"OK."

"Forget those naysayers," her mother advised her. "You got the job because your uncle has faith in you. Just do your best — that's the only way you can really silence your critics."

"I'll try. Thank you, Omma."

Mother and daughter chatted a little while longer before both had to get back to work. After hanging up, Oh-lan took a deep breath and willed herself to focus on the task at hand. She would finish this piece first, and then she would be free to pour all her energies into making sure the AN JELL book project was a success.

_And it __will__ be a success,_ she thought with determination as she twisted her hair into a messy bun and stuck a pen through it to keep the mass in place.

As she always did during times of difficulty, Oh-lan thought about how her name had been inspired by that of the mother of Genghis Khan, who had been the wife of a tribal chief, a mother who had fought to keep her family alive in the wilderness, and one of her son's most trusted advisers. She knew that her name had come about because Professor Han taught Asian history, but when she was feeling down, Oh-lan told herself that she had the same wisdom and strength as her namesake.

Once she was done with this article, she would start work on the AN JELL project. She would think very hard about the concept that President Ahn wanted, and do her best to make that vision become a glorious reality. Then the whole world, especially that self-important twit, Soon-ok, would know that she was a good writer.


	2. Maneater

**Disclaimer:** The AN JELL-verse belongs to the Hong sisters, creators of _You're_ _Beautiful_.

**Technical Notes:** As I did in _This Above All_, I have taken the liberty of giving Coordi-noona Wang a first name. I have no idea whether the "Ko-di" listed as her name on some wiki sites is canon or a misunderstanding of "Coordi," but I decided to name her Sang-mee long before I looked it up, so Sang-mee she will remain.

**Author's Notes:** Thanks to Alex, alex (I'm assuming you and Alex are not the same person?), Shinu Mae, emotionalwordplay and Buru-beri-chan for the reviews!

_

* * *

Chapter Two — Maneater (Nelly Furtado)_

"Isn't this great?" Jeremy said to his bandmates.

It was hardly the ideal setting for a reunion; instead of a party or cozy meal at the mansion, the four members of AN JELL came together for the first time in a long time at a photographer's studio, preparing to have new concept photos taken for their upcoming album. They couldn't eat, drink or even sit comfortably because their style coordinator, Wang Sang-mee, didn't want to risk any damage to their outfits, and all around them staffers rushed around frantically in response to the photographer's rapid-fire instructions.

For the blond boy, however, that wasn't what was important. "It feels like it's been ages since we were all together!"

"It has," agreed Hwang Tae-kyung, the band's lead vocalist. He scowled as Stylist Wang fiddled with his hair for what seemed to be the millionth time. "Though sometimes I feel like the time apart was too short."

"I feel the same way about you, brother-in-law," Mi-nam drawled, grinning unrepentantly. He loved taking shameless advantage of the fact that the vocalist was Mi-nyeo's boyfriend, and if Tae-kyung wanted to have any kind of future with her, then he had to stay on Mi-nam's good side.

"Don't mind Tae-kyung, Jeremy," said Kang Shin-woo, AN JELL's lead guitarist, when Jeremy pouted. "I know that deep down, he's really glad to see you again." He grinned teasingly at Tae-kyung and reached over to ruffle the blond boy's hair, only to have his hand slapped away by Stylist Wang.

"Don't touch him!" the older woman ordered. "If one hair is out of place, the whole effect will be ruined!"

Shin-woo put on an appopriately contrite expression. "Sorry, noona."

Just then, Photographer Lee approached, all smiles. Although big-name celebrities demanded his services all the time, he and his staffers were nevertheless excited to be working with AN JELL. "Are we ready to begin?" he asked them pleasantly.

"Wait just one moment, please," Stylist Wang said, and walked over to make invisible adjustments to the ruffles on the front of Mi-nam's shirt. "OK, they're ready!"

"All right," the photographer began, "according to Stylist Wang here, the concept for your new album is 'the soul of the artist.' The style that she has developed will show your versatility as musicians, and I will do my best to convey that in my pictures.

"Now, the first series of photos is meant to show AN JELL's sensitive, romantic side." He nodded at the band's vaguely Victorian look, which featured flowing poet's shirts, skinny pants and hair artfully swept up off their foreheads. "I'd like you to have relaxed poses and soft expressions — but still masculine, of course. We'll do the more edgy styles later, when you change into your other costumes. Are there any questions?"

The band exchanged looks. "No," Tae-kyung said finally, on behalf of the entire group. "I think we're set." They were old hands at this sort of thing, and Photographer Lee's instructions seemed clear enough.

The older man beamed and clapped his hands. "Wonderful! Let's begin, then. Jeremy, we'll start with you."

* * *

President Ahn dropped by the set just as the photo session was wrapping up. Rather than call attention to himself, he proudly watched his boys in action from the sidelines and didn't address them until after the photographer put down his camera. _"Nice job!"_ AN JELL's manager said then, clapping his hands.

Photographer Lee turned and gave the other man a bow and smile of greeting. "I think the pictures will come out very well, President Ahn," he said, then nodded happily to the band and crew on the set. "That's it for this session. Thank you for your hard work, everyone!"

Mi-nam and his bandmates applauded and thanked the crew on their way to join their manager. "All of you did very well," President Ahn praised them. "Stylist Wang, this is a very good concept that you've chosen."

"You haven't seen half of it, chief!" she replied, beaming at the compliment.

It was true; President Ahn had missed seeing AN JELL in their "sensitive artist" and "edgy artist" looks, the latter of which consisted of minimalist, predominantly black outfits. The band was now wearing what Stylist Wang called their "urban artist" outfits, which skillfully blended punk and hip-hop elements into a street-savvy whole. (Personally, Mi-nam liked this last style best of all, since it was closest to his own tastes.)

"Please have the boys change back into their regular clothes," President Ahn instructed her. "We have an appointment."

"Do we _have_ to be there?" Jeremy whined. He was clearly starting to tire; otherwise, he wouldn't be so cranky.

"Don't worry," the manager soothed. "It's just a short dinner meeting. There's someone I need you boys to meet."

"Is she cute?" Mi-nam asked.

President Ahn frowned. At first, Mi-nam thought that he was displeased by the flippant question, but it turned out he was considering the question carefully. "I hadn't noticed," he admitted. "I didn't think it was important. Anyway, get changed and you'll see for yourself later."

He grinned. "Oh, so we _are_ meeting a girl tonight!"

"The fact that she is a girl isn't relevant to the matter we have to discuss," the older man said, clearly disapproving now. "Get changed, Go Mi-nam."

"Yes, sir."

* * *

President Ahn took the band to his favorite hotel buffet, where he told them to eat as much as they wanted. The person with whom they were meeting was working late, he said, and would be joining them later.

The boys didn't need to be told twice. Almost immediately, they grabbed plates and attacked. There had been lunch and snacks between costume changes at the whole-day photo shoot, but they were still boys, and standing around and looking good still made one hungry.

Jeremy and Shin-woo were on their second round when President Ahn caught sight of someone and rose to his feet. "Ah, Reporter Park! Welcome!"

"Good evening, President Ahn," said a cultured female voice. "I'm sorry I'm late. I had to finish something at the office, and then the subway station was really crowded. I hope you didn't wait for too long."

"There's no need to apologize," he replied. "You gave us advance notice that you would be late. Besides, it gave the boys time to have some dinner. "Boys, here is the person I wanted you to meet. This is Ms. Park Oh-lan. She's a reporter for _Inside Showbiz_ magazine. Reporter Park, I'm sure you know AN JELL."

"Of course." Oh-lan smiled politely and exchanged bows of greeting with the band. "Hello. It's a pleasure to meet you."

They answered her with varying degrees of warmth, with the blond drummer, Jeremy's, reply being the warmest of all. She supposed that they either didn't know about the project yet, or knew and were too tired to muster or even feign any enthusiasm. That was understandable; she imagined that they all had hectic schedules and this meeting was one more thing standing between them and some well-deserved rest.

"Why don't you get yourself something to eat?" President Ahn said to her then. "It's my treat. We'll talk more when you've settled."

She smiled at the older man. "All right. Thank you."

Oh-lan was hungry but didn't want to keep the others waiting, so rather than browse leisurely through the buffet offerings, she helped herself from the first station, grabbed a drink and headed quickly back to the table.

President Ahn was considerate enough to give her some time to eat before restarting the discussion. "I mentioned that Reporter Park here works for a magazine," he told the band, "but she's not here as a reporter. I've hired her to write a book about the making of AN JELL's new album."

"A book?" Jeremy repeated, his mouth full.

"That's right," the manager confirmed. "Reporter Park will be dropping by the recording studio to watch you work, and she'll be present at some of your other activities as well. I want the book to talk a bit about how you balance making music with your busy promotion schedules.

"So, I'll need you boys to cooperate with Reporter Park," he continued. "I want this book to be a success. It will be good for us not only in terms of sales, but it will also give your fans a look behind the scenes and help boost your image."

"Of course we'll all do our best," Shin-woo said with a smile, and Jeremy nodded in agreement. "It'll be pretty exciting, having a book written about us."

"Tae-kyung? Mi-nam?" their manager prompted.

"Of course, President Ahn," Tae-kyung said.

Oh-lan, however, could tell that the most private AN JELL member wasn't exactly enthusiastic about the project. "I'll tell you now that I would like to interview each of you for this book, and of course we'll have to take some pictures," she said, addressing the entire band but the vocalist in particular. "But I assure you that apart from that, I'll just be in the background, observing. I definitely don't want to interfere with your work."

She noted that Tae-kyung didn't look reassured; however, he gave her a brief nod of acknowledgement. That was a start, she supposed. Hopefully he would loosen up when he saw that she was interested only in watching the band in action, and not in mining for deep, dark secrets.

* * *

"It could have been worse," Shin-woo remarked on the ride home. "It could have been a reality show. At least a book seems more respectable."

"Perhaps, but just barely," Tae-kyung said derisively. "I doubt if it's going to be fine literature."

"I think it'll still be pretty good," Mi-nam told his bandmate. "I've read some of Park Oh-lan's articles for _Inside Showbiz_. She writes well."

"You read that rag?"

"You know I do." The keyboardist rolled his eyes. "I told you, it's to keep track of my popularity... and also for the pictures of hot actresses."

"Speaking of hot," Jeremy broke in, "what did you think of Reporter Park?" He laughed. "Was she as cute as you hoped?"

"Are you kidding?" Mi-nam scoffed. He had taken one look at the woman and dismissed her almost instantly. There was nothing at all stylish about her appearance. "If you put a veil on her, she could be one of the nuns at the orphanage."

"That's a nice thing to say," Shin-woo chuckled. "Weren't you just defending her a while ago?"

"I was talking about her skills, hyung, not her looks. She's still a good reporter, just not a cute one." He snickered. "And it's a good thing she's a reporter for a magazine, not a TV station."

* * *

The writer turned up at AN JELL's next recording session. As promised, she kept her distance, staying in the engineering booth while the band worked.

"Doesn't she look like a ghost or something?" Jeremy whispered to his bandmates during a short break, as they waited for playback. "It's creepy."

Mi-nam had to agree that it was disturbing to see the woman in black sitting at the producer's side like an evil spirit, and to know that she was watching them. He tended to gauge his performances based on external cues, and even though Producer Woo gave them all the feedback they really needed, her lack of expression (except for a look of intense concentration) was driving him crazy.

"What did you think?" he finally asked her when she joined them during the dinner break.

"About what?" the writer asked.

"The song, of course."

"Oh. It was good. I mean, I'm not an expert so I can't break it down for you, note by note, but I liked it." She chuckled briefly. "Even though I'll probably be hearing it in my sleep for the next week."

"You're not the only one!" Jeremy said. After catching a glare from Tae-kyung, he added quickly, "B-but of course we need to do fifteen takes of the song! How else are we going to get it perfect?"

"Is that the way it's done?" Oh-lan asked as she opened the styrofoam takeout container that a staffer handed to her and inspected the food inside. "Do you tend to play a song over and over until you get it right?"

"Sometimes, we get it done in one take," Shin-woo told her as he opened a bottle of water, "but we usually do more than one."

"That's because we or the producers want to make some adjustments," Tae-kyung said, "and see if the song would be better with those changes."

Mi-nam thought that "we" usually just meant "Tae-kyung;" as AN JELL's main songwriter, he was very meticulous about the way the band played his work. Of course, the keyboardist didn't say so, especially not in front of the writer. Besides, to be perfectly fair, Tae-kyung was just as demanding of himself as he was of the rest of them. He just wanted the song to be as good as it could be, that was all.

"I know the feeling," Oh-lan said. "Lots of times when I'm writing, I tend to fiddle with what I've already done even though it's perfectly good, just to see if I could say it better."

Tae-kyung nodded his understanding. "I do that, too."

"I think I get it from my parents. When they write papers, they edit them to death."

"Papers?" Jeremy repeated, looking confused.

"Academic papers," she clarified. "They're college professors."

Mi-nam snorted, hiding his reaction by taking a bite of kimbap. No wonder she wore such thick glasses and boring clothes. _It figures._

"What figures?" Oh-lan asked him.

He blinked, realizing that then he had spoken that last thought aloud. "It-it figures that your parents would be educated people," he said, thinking fast, "since you sound so intelligent yourself!"

"I do?"

Mi-nam nodded earnestly, putting on his most angelic expression and hoping she wouldn't notice Jeremy's knowing grin. His bandmates could tell that he was trying to cover up something. "I've read some of your articles for _Inside Showbiz_," he went on. "I think they're some of the best writing I've ever seen in your magazine."

"Oh." Distracted by the compliment, she gave him a pleased smile. "Well, thank you very much."

"You're welcome."

As the writer smiled, he couldn't help thinking that maybe she didn't look as nun-like as he had first thought. It wasn't just the smile; there was something else about her that kept her from looking like President Ahn's secretary or the mean nuns at the orphanage. He just couldn't put his finger on it right now.

Then she turned to answer a question that Shin-woo had asked her, and Mi-nam saw the pen sticking out of the sloppy bun at the back of her head. _She might not be a nun,_ he thought, _but she's still a nerd._


	3. Know Your Enemy

**Disclaimer:** The AN JELL-verse belongs to the Hong sisters, creators of _You're_ _Beautiful_.

**Author's Notes:** Thanks to alex for the review! :)

_Edited 04-06-12 - I just discovered that Tae-kyung's dad has a name in canon. Fortunately, my guess wasn't too far off!_

* * *

_Chapter Three _— _Know Your Enemy (Rage Against the Machine)_

After attending a couple of AN JELL's recording sessions, Oh-lan was glad to observe that the band was gradually becoming more accustomed to her presence. They weren't close friends by any means — not that she was out to worm her way into their inner circle — but they were certainly polite to her and more relaxed when she was around, which was important if she was going to be able to observe them as they really were when they were working.

They also didn't mind when she brought in In-jung one day to take some pictures for the book. She had had her misgivings because the photographer was a big AN JELL fan and tended to be excitable sometimes, but he behaved himself throughout the session and didn't ask the band for their autographs until after his work was done. They politely obliged, but Oh-lan still felt compelled to apologize and show that even though she was a reporter, she was considerate of their privacy.

"I'm sorry if he was a bit over-enthusiastic," she said to AN JELL after In-jung had gone. "Photographer Yoon is very talented, but he's new on the job and I think this is his first time working with celebrities that he really admires."

"It's all right, Reporter Park," Shin-woo assured her. "He wasn't any trouble."

"Besides," Jeremy added, "it's good to be appreciated every now and then."

Just then, the drummer's sunny expression clouded slightly and he muttered something under his breath. Oh-lan wasn't sure, but he seemed to be saying something about how he certainly wasn't getting appreciation from the _important_ people in his life...

She decided to forge ahead before his mood deteriorated any further. Apart from the photos, there was one more order of business that she needed to take up with the band. "And, um, since I'm already here..." she began, "I suppose this is a good time to start talking about one-on-one interviews? We don't need to do them right away, since I know you're all very busy, but they'll be necessary for the book."

There was a beat of silence, but Tae-kyung eventually nodded. "Of course, Reporter Park," he said, his voice neutral. "We'll all need to check with Manager Ma about our schedules, but we'll get back to you about when we might be free to sit down with you."

* * *

Despite their outward cooperation, however, some AN JELL members were less than enthusiastic about doing interviews. "I don't see why we have to do them," Mi-nam complained at breakfast one morning. The band had just drawn lots to see who would be the first to have his interview, and he had just won — or lost, depending on how you looked at it. "If the writer wants information on us, she can just look it up on the Internet."

"Maybe she's going to ask us different questions," Shin-woo suggested as he poured himself some more tea.

"Oh, please. It's just a biography. Our entire life stories are online."

"The public versions, anyway," Tae-kyung murmured, smirking.

"Well, if Reporter Park is as good as you say she is, Mi-nam," Shin-woo remarked, "then I think she'll want to get more information than what everyone else already knows."

"New information will help the book sell," AN JELL's handler, Ma Hoon-yi, said wisely. As was his custom, he had shown up early to make sure that his charges were ready to start the day. "You know your fans want to know all about you. And don't forget," he added, "the sales will directly benefit you, too, because this is an official AN JELL product."

"Fine," Mi-nam said, "it'll be good for us if the book does well, but why do _I_ have to go first?"

"Because the fates have spoken and you drew Number 1," Jeremy informed him with relish. "And even if we weren't drawing lots, you'd still have to go first because you're the most junior member of the group."

He made a face at the drummer. Technically, they were the same age, but Jeremy was pulling rank because Mi-nam was the last to join the band. "If anyone has to go first, it should be... _you_, brother-in-law."

Tae-kyung frowned, his water glass halfway to his mouth. "Me? How did you come up with that idea?"

"You're AN JELL's leader. It's only right that you go first."

"If you think that's enough to convince me to take your place, you're sadly mistaken."

"I haven't even started," Mi-nam assured him smoothly. "Not only are you our leader, but you're also the most experienced at facing the press. After you have your interview, you could give the rest of us tips on how to handle Reporter Park's questions. You wouldn't want us to disgrace ourselves, would you?"

"Hey, we've been doing interviews for years, too, you know," Shin-woo commented mildly.

Mi-nam ignored that. "The first interview will set the tone for the rest," he went on. "If you went first, then she would know that she can't mess with AN JELL."

"Why would she want to?" Jeremy asked. "President Ahn is paying her. She'll get in trouble if she gives us problems."

Mi-nam ignored that, too. "AN JELL's leader should set the limits and show Reporter Park just how she should treat the band if she wants to get paid in the end."

"You know, Mi-nam," Shin-woo pointed out, "for someone who's supposedly a fan of her work, you're going to great lengths to bully her."

"He's just too lazy to do the first interview," Jeremy scoffed, stuffing a spoonful of rice into his mouth.

"And most importantly, brother-in-law," the keyboardist concluded triumphantly, "if you went first, then you could make sure that what Reporter Park finds out is the information that _you_ want her to know, and tell us what you said so we can get all our stories straight. For instance, what if she asked me about your private life and I said more than I was supposed to?"

Tae-kyung scowled. "I'll think about it," he said, but from the look on his face, Mi-nam could tell that he had just won him over.

The others could see that as well, and Manager Ma goggled. "Go Mi-nam, maybe you should have become a lawyer instead of a singer."

"No way, Manager Ma," Jeremy told him. "It's good that he just became a singer. If he tried to be come a lawyer, he might have turned into a con artist instead."

* * *

Oh-lan was surprised when Hwang Tae-kyung volunteered to be interviewed first. Although he was AN JELL's frontman and fielded most of the reporters' questions during press conferences, he was also its most reserved member. She imagined that he would be the least enthusiastic about doing a one-on-one interview, especially if he wasn't sure what she would be asking him.

It appeared, though, that he had certain ideas about what that would be. "Let's get this out of the way," he said as he took a seat on the rather saggy brown couch in her temporary office at AN Entertainment. "Yes, I have a serious girlfriend, my favorite color is dark blue, and I'm allergic to a lot of things. If you need to know exactly what those things are," he offered innocently, "I can get a list from my doctor."

Oh-lan studied him for a long moment, then switched off the digital recorder she had just turned on. "Thanks, but that won't be necessary," she replied bluntly. "This isn't a plain vanilla fan interview. You already know that this book is going to be about the making of AN JELL's new album, which means that I need to write about your individual role in the band, and how the parts come together to form the whole.

"So," she concluded crisply, "may I ask you the questions that I need to ask, or are we going to waste your manager's money and our time talking about things I don't need for this project?" It was very risky, addressing him in such a manner, but perhaps being straightforward would encourage him to do the same.

Tae-kyung flushed and for a while she feared that he would walk out on her, but then he smiled thinly and said, "I think the first option would be more productive."

"So do I." She smiled and restarted her recorder. "Let's begin again. Why don't you tell me about your musical influences?"

"My taste in music is pretty eclectic," he answered after a few moments' thought. "I listen to everything from rock to pop to classical, and I think it all affects my style, one way or another. I think that one thing is constant across all of my influences, though," he added. "I like music with a good melody. That's what makes a piece beautiful to me, and I think it's appealing to most people, too."

She nodded as she jotted things down in her notebook. "I guess that's why AN JELL's songs are so popular."

"I guess," Tae-kyung agreed, "but this isn't about just pleasing the public. Of course, we want to make our fans happy, but it must still be art, too. AN JELL is lucky that we like to express ourselves in a style that's accessible to lots of people."

Oh-lan nodded enthusiastically. Now they were getting somewhere. She went on to ask him about his father and his influence on Tae-kyung's career, discovering that Hwang Kyung-soon wasn't an AN JELL fan, but that was because of his personal preferences. She also attempted to ask Tae-kyung about his mother, having heard some interesting rumors about his background, but quickly changed directions when he indicated that the topic was strictly off-limits.

"So, you were the first to be selected for AN JELL," she said. "Do you think that's a big reason why you make most of the creative decisions for the band?"

He frowned thoughtfully and shook his head. "I don't think it's because I'm the eldest or was the first one on board, but because most of my skills lie in writing and arranging songs. I like to play instruments and sing, but what I like to do best is put tunes together in my head and figure out new ways to put my thoughts to music.

"Of course, my bandmates are just as talented and important to the band as I," he added. "I might come up with most of the ideas, but we all work together to make them better. Maybe without my contributions, AN JELL wouldn't be as good as it is," he said, "but without Shin-woo, Mi-nam and Jeremy, I know that my ideas would flounder and die."

"That's a wonderful thing to say," Oh-lan said, smiling as she wrote furiously. "I'll definitely try to include that in the book somehow."

The vocalist turned red again. He seemed embarrassed about saying such things when he was supposed to be the thoroughly professional leader of the band. "Well, I think it's important for me to emphasize to the public that I'm just a part of the whole."

Suddenly, there was a buzzing noise and Tae-kyung pulled his cell phone from his pocket. "I'm afraid I need to cut this interview short," he said after reading the text message that had come in. "I forgot that we're all knocking off early today — we have an important appointment."

"Oh." She turned off her recorder, feeling disappointed. She had just managed to get the conversation flowing, but now he had to leave. "Well, thank you very much for taking the time to speak with me. I think I got a lot of good material for the book."

"If you have any other questions, we can continue this another time," he suggested. "This... wasn't as bad as I thought it would be."

Oh-lan smiled. "Thank you, Tae-kyung. I'll keep that in mind."

* * *

AN JELL's "important appointment" was a dinner at home with two very special guests — Jeremy's semi-girlfriend, Su-jin, and Mi-nam's sister, Mi-nyeo. "Thanks for giving my sister a ride, Su-jin," Mi-nam said when the girls arrived that evening.

"It wasn't any trouble," she replied cheerfully as she gave Jeremy's beloved dog, Angelina Jolie, a scratch behind the ears. "Oof! It's starting to get cold out there!"

"Here, let me help you with your things," he offered, only to have Jeremy barge in.

"_I'll_ help her with her things, Go Mi-nam," the blond boy declared, the stubby ponytail at the top of his head wagging decisively. "Why don't you go bring the groceries into the kitchen?"

Jolie barked, as if in agreement, and Mi-nam rolled his eyes. "Yes, master," he said dryly.

"It's just some fruit and ice cream for dessert, oppa," Mi-nyeo said, nodding to the plastic bags that she and Su-jin had carried inside. Jolie went over to inspect them, and Mi-nyeo distracted the dog by petting her. "We wanted to contribute something, too."

He smiled at his twin. "Well, it was really nice of you girls to do that. Don't worry, I'll take care of it."

When Mi-nam and the groceries were gone, Jeremy gave Su-jin a sweet smile. "Hi, jagi."

She blushed at the endearment, but recovered and laughed at him. "Here, hold my stuff while I change my shoes."

As Su-jin piled her jacket, scarf and purse in his arms, Jeremy supposed that the smile had been overdoing it, but he didn't seem to have failed too badly. She was holding on to him while unzipping her boots, wasn't she?

"Why are you staring at me?" Su-jin asked warily when her boots were off and she had shoved her feet into a pair of house slippers.

He blinked, startled out of his thoughts, and frowned. "That skirt is too short," he told her. Jolie sniffed at her before snorting her own disapproval.

"It is not! It covers everything that's supposed to be covered. Are you trying to dictate my wardrobe?" she accused. "Because you have no right to do that. You're not my boyfriend."

"I am, too—"

"No, you're not. You're on probation, remember?"

"A boyfriend on probation is still a boyfriend!"

"Well, even _if_ you were my boyfriend," Su-jin went on, "I'm not going to let you cramp my style. If you keep this up, I might make my skirts even shorter, just to annoy you."

Jeremy scowled at her for a moment, but the scowl quickly changed into a grin when he realized what that would mean. "That works for me, too."

She reddened, but before she could reply, Tae-kyung and Shin-woo emerged from the music room. "Jeremy, why didn't you tell me that the girls were already here?" the vocalist demanded.

"They just got here, hyung!" he replied defensively.

Mi-nyeo nodded, her face lighting up at the sight of her boyfriend. "That's right, oppa."

Tae-kyung, too, looked happy to see her, but continued to scold Jeremy. "And why haven't you helped Mi-nyeo with her coat?" he asked, walking over to do just that. "Just because your girlfriend's here doesn't mean you can be a rotten host."

Shin-woo shook his head, chuckling. "Maybe they were saving that privilege for you, Tae-kyung," he said, and then nodded politely to the girls. "Hello, Su-jin, Mi-nyeo."

"Hi, Shin-woo," Su-jin replied, smiling back. Besides her relationship with Jeremy, she was also best friend to Shin-woo's girlfriend, So Ha-neul, who left had that day for a modeling assignment in Macau and thus couldn't join them for dinner. "Ha-neul says that she'll call you later."

"That's great." He looked pleased. "Maybe she'll call while we're all still here, so she can talk to everyone."

_"Hey!"_ Mi-nam called out from the kitchen. _"Am I supposed to cook dinner all by myself?"_

_"Yes!"_ Jeremy answered gleefully. He was now two-for-two over Mi-nam, and had got the last word with Su-jin, too. This evening was off to a great start!

"You seriously don't mean that, do you?" Tae-kyung asked with a frown. "Remember the last time we left Mi-nam to make dinner by himself?"

_"I mean, no!"_ the blond boy amended quickly, dumping Su-jin's things on the couch and running to the kitchen area, Jolie trotting after him. "Hang on, we're coming!"

* * *

With guests and hosts working together, dinner was prepared quickly and everyone sat down to enjoy the spaghetti, salad and garlic bread in good spirits. Furthermore, even though she couldn't be there physically, Ha-neul called during dessert. Shin-woo passed his phone around to allow her to chat with everyone, even Jolie, before stepping out so that they could have a more private conversation.

"Shin-woo's lucky that Ha-neul called right before it was time to clean up," Tae-kyung remarked dryly as he and the others cleared the table.

Mi-nam laughed. "I seem to remember you timing your calls to my sister right after dinner, too, brother-in-law."

_"Oppa!"_ his twin protested, blushing. "Hyu—Tae-kyung oppa would never do that."

"He did, too," Jeremy said, unrolling a length of plastic wrap so that Su-jin could cover the salad bowl. "You were in Africa so you never noticed."

"It was the best time to call," Tae-kyung argued. "That way, I could catch Mi-nyeo on her afternoon break. Besides, if I didn't do it, how else would I be able to tell that they were doing the same thing now?"

"Doing what now?" Shin-woo asked as he walked into the dining area, his phone call over.

"Tae-kyung couldn't help but notice that you spoke to your girlfriend just in time to get out of cleaning up," Mi-nam told him with a grin.

"That was purely coincidental," the guitarist defended himself. "Or, at least, I had nothing to do with Ha-neul's choice to call during dessert. Besides, there's still plenty of cleaning up to do, so it's not like I left you completely in the lurch." To illustrate, he started carrying dirty glasses to the dishwasher.

Mi-nam turned, still grinning, back to Tae-kyung. "See, it was purely coincidental," he repeated. "You're still the only one who used his long-distance relationship to get out of doing chores."

"Oppa, stop teasing him," Mi-nyeo said.

Shin-woo chuckled. "If you're going to keep accusing me of those things, Tae-kyung, you're not getting any of the egg tarts that Ha-neul promised to bring us from Macau."

The vocalist shrugged. "Eggs play havoc with my digestion, anyway. Oh, by the way," he added, "aren't you going to ask me about my interview with Reporter Park?"

"Why would they want to do that?" Su-jin asked, confused.

"It's not just any ordinary interview, jagi," Jeremy told her. "President Ahn hired someone to write a book about the making of our new album."

"Oh!" Mi-nyeo said excitedly. "That sounds really cool!"

Su-jin nodded, looking impressed. "It's better than a reality show, like everyone seems to be doing these days."

"Anyway, the writer has sat in on some of our recording sessions," the blond boy continued, "and now she wants to interview us one by one. Tae-kyung hyung was the first."

"So, how was it?" Shin-woo asked the vocalist. "Did she ask the same old, tired questions about how tall you are and what you like to eat for breakfast?"

Tae-kyung shook his head. "She didn't, actually. Her questions were pretty in-depth. I got a little bit rattled when she told me straight-out what she wanted to talk about," he admitted. "She didn't suck up at all, not like the other reporters for the gossip magazines."

"What do you mean by in-depth?" Jeremy asked. "Did she want to know all about your relationship with your girlfriend and stuff like that?" He shot Su-jin a nervous glance.

She caught him looking at her. "If she asks you about that," she said, blushing slightly, "you just tell her the truth — that you're single."

"No, she didn't care about that," Tae-kyung said. "Her questions were hard to answer sometimes, but they were tame enough. Basically, she asked about how we work on our music and the things she observed in the studio."

Shin-woo nodded. According to the lots they had drawn, he was going to be interviewed next. "That doesn't sound so bad."


	4. I Just Wanna Live

**Disclaimer:** The AN JELL-verse belongs to the Hong sisters, creators of _You're_ _Beautiful_. Superman belongs to DC Comics and Lord Stow's Bakery to its stockholders. The Gorillaz and Taecyeon of 2PM belong to themselves.

**Technical Notes:** "Iron Horse" is a term I picked up while I was living in California. I think it was the Native Americans' name for locomotive trains and I thought it would be a cool name for a rock band. Shin-woo thinks so, too.

**Author's Notes:** Thanks to Buru-beri-chan, alex and spicegirls08 for the reviews! :) I hope you're not finding these chapters too draggy - I thought the interviews were a good opportunity to write down some of my own thoughts on the AN JELL members' personalities and relationships with each other. The action will pick up in the next chapter, I promise!

PS alex, in answer to your question, Su-jin hasn't taken Jeremy back because she's having too much fun making him suffer. She's really lucky Jeremy hasn't given up!

PPS To all fans of 2PM, please don't get mad. Jeremy means no disrespect. He's just jealous :-p

_

* * *

Chapter Four — I Just Wanna Live (Good Charlotte)_

Oh-lan supposed that Tae-kyung had warned his bandmates that she wasn't going to stand for any nonsense; or, perhaps, Shin-woo was just being his polite, obliging self. At any rate, her second interviewee looked like he intended to behave himself and let her run the show.

"Let's talk about your role in AN JELL," she began when he took a seat in her office. "Everyone knows that you play lead guitar and sometimes do vocals."

"That's right," Shin-woo confirmed.

"But offstage, in the studio," Oh-lan continued, "I've noticed that you spend a lot of time acting as a go-between for Tae-kyung and the rest of the band. If he is AN JELL's leader, do you see yourself as second-in-command?"

"Oh, no." He shook his head modestly. "It's just that when I see that the band doesn't understand each other, or one of the others is feeling down, I feel the need to do something about it."

She nodded and made some notes. "Could you give me some examples?" she asked.

The guitarist paused thoughtfully, as if choosing his words. "About being a go-between for Tae-kyung and the others... we've worked together for years, but the work that we do changes all the time, so even after all this time, we still need to make sure that we understand his instructions completely. I just try to make sure that happens. I might not always get what Tae-kyung is trying to say, but asking questions is the best way to fix that and move forward."

"It is," Oh-lan agreed with a smile. "I should know; I'm a reporter. Now, how about when one of your bandmates is feeling down?"

"Well, if they're feeling bad, then it's only right that I try to cheer them up," Shin-woo said with a shrug. "Not only should all of AN JELL understand each other, but we have to be motivated to work hard. Besides," he added, "they're like brothers to me. I don't like seeing them sad."

"And who cheers _you_ up?"

He grinned. "My bandmates do. AN JELL is a family and like any family, we have our misunderstandings, but we have great times, too. And even if we're really busy in the studio and don't have much time for joking around, just seeing us all do our best for each other is enough for me. I'm happiest when AN JELL is working well together."

"Tae-kyung mentioned that while he comes up with the basic idea for a song, all of you work together to come up with the final version. Could you tell me a little about how that works?"

"He more or less said it all, really," Shin-woo said. "Tae-kyung writes a song, plays it for all of us and we critique it. Then we play it as a band and figure out if there's anything we could do to make the song better. You've seen us do that. But sometimes," he added, "we get the chance to add a little more, like a rap or an instrumental solo. Or maybe even sing lead."

Oh-lan nodded. "I checked and saw that you've done quite a bit of all that for AN JELL," she noted. "Including writing songs. Are you working on anything new for this album?"

He shook his head. "I've written some new songs, but they're much more rock-oriented and don't really fit in with AN JELL's image or the concept of the new album. I'm still interested in going in that direction, though, so I'm still writing."

"That's good. Will you release any of them as a solo single?"

Shin-woo paused. "Can this be off the record?" he asked after a moment.

"We don't have to talk about that if you'd rather not," she replied slowly. She wished she could have just said yes because she was curious and wanted him to keep talking, but he was entitled to choose whether or not to talk at all.

"I don't mind telling you about it, but I'd rather not have this information publicized just yet."

Oh-lan nodded. "All right. You have my word that whatever you say next is off the record." As a gesture of good faith, she turned off her recorder.

"Thank you," he said with a smile. "My bandmates have agreed to help me record my songs and I'll be releasing them, but not under my name. At this point, we're not sure yet how the public would react to a new sound, and I don't want to affect AN JELL's image in any way.

"We're going to release them as a group called Iron Horse," Shin-woo confided. "The launch won't be on the same scale as AN JELL — it's going to be very low-profile, like an amateur independent band just getting started."

"That sounds very cool," Oh-lan said with an approving nod. "Maybe you can even create fictitious personas for Iron Horse, like the Gorillaz. That might make things more interesting."

He grinned. "It would be fun to be someone else for a while," he agreed. "I'll tell the other guys about it; I bet they'll like the idea, too."

* * *

"Making up characters would be awesome!" Jeremy said enthusiastically. "Can mine have big muscles and a ponytail?"

The members of AN JELL were sitting in a private dressing room, waiting to go out for a meet-and-greet as part of an AN Entertainment showcase that would also mark the debut of a new group. To help kill time, Shin-woo had told his bandmates about his interview, including the writer's suggestion.

"Sure, whatever you want," the guitarist laughed, and nodded to the others. "The same goes for you guys, too."

"Go Mi-nam, your character can be a girl," Tae-kyung suggested slyly.

He made a face. "Very funny, brother-in-law. Hey, aren't we supposed to be out there socializing with the media or something?"

The vocalist laughed. "The only time I see you eager to get to work is when you don't want to admit that I won one of our arguments."

"What's the name of that rookie group again?" Jeremy asked.

"They're called ROKx," Shin-woo told him, the band's name sounding like the word "rocks." As always, he had done his homework. "And if anyone asks, 'Silent Girl' is your favorite track from their mini-album."

The drummer laughed. "I like silent girls, period!"

"Really?" Mi-nam asked, arching an eyebrow. "I find that hard to believe."

"Shut up, Go Mi-nam!"

Tae-kyung shook his head and got to his feet. "We should probably head out there before you two kill each other," he said. "I don't want to have to explain to the press, President Ahn and Mi-nyeo why AN JELL has only two members left."

* * *

Apart from the meet-and-greet, the showcase also involved a short press conference introducing ROKx to the public and performances by AN Entertainment artists. It was a combination PR and marketing event, to sell the media on the management company's talents and the music that they were going to release.

Like all of the other women reporters present, Oh-lan was wearing a business suit and sensible heels. She was sure that she would completely blend in with the background, but the members of AN JELL spotted her (or else they were obligated to speak to all the journalists in the room) and went over to pay their respects.

"Good evening, Reporter Park," Tae-kyung greeted with a polite bow. His bandmates followed suit. "We're glad you could come tonight."

"I'm happy to be here," she replied, even as she privately thought that she didn't have a choice in the matter. That night, she was doing double duty, covering the event for _Inside Showbiz_ as well as gathering material for the AN JELL book.

Jeremy peered at her, his nose wrinking slightly. "You look like my nanny when I was eight."

"I think you mean that Reporter Park looks very professional," Shin-woo corrected him with a gentle nudge.

Oh-lan chuckled and waved off the blond boy's comment. "Well, I think all of you look very nice as well," she said. Having observed the band behind the scenes, she was used to seeing them in more casual clothes. That night, they were wearing more polished, coordinated outfits. "Will you be performing later?"

The guitarist nodded. "All the acts managed by AN Entertainment are supposed to perform tonight, except Yang Jae-min, who's touring right now."

"We'll be going last," Jeremy added helpfully.

"Of course," she said. As AN Entertainment's most successful talent, AN JELL would naturally provide the grand finale. "I'll watch out for that, then. I'm sure you'll do very well later."

Oh-lan took her leave of the band not long after and, pausing to exchange pleasantries with colleagues and get quotes from the other celebrities in attendance, made her way to a spot near a very large ROKx poster. From there, she watched AN JELL work the room with the confidence that could only come from years of experience. Well, she amended, three of them had years of experience; Go Mi-nam, though relatively new to the game, kept pace with his bandmates thanks to his supreme self-assurance and natural charm.

_At least, he would if he spent more time engaging with the media, and less time flirting with the girls,_ she thought dryly as she spied him chatting up a pretty young music-channel reporter in a very short skirt. There was no harm in what he was doing — after all, it was only human to enjoy the perks of fame — but really, it was quite unproductive.

* * *

"Yeah, it was fun," Jeremy said on the ride home from the showcase. He was speaking to Su-jin on his cell phone, and the others were exchanging amused looks and trying not to eavesdrop. "I wish I could have brought you as my date, though... No, really!... On second thought, you might've become too starstruck and ignored your boyfriend because of all the other celebrities around—hey, I am _too_ your boyfriend!"

Mi-nam rolled his eyes. Trust Jeremy to mess things up in no time, he thought. Deciding to leave the drummer to his own devices, he turned to Tae-kyung and Shin-woo. "So, I have a date tomorrow after our recording session," he boasted with a grin.

"Oh, yeah?" Shin-woo asked. "With whom?"

"Taecyeon of 2PM?" Jeremy squawked, still on the phone. "He is _not_ cuter than me!"

"One of the backup dancers who performed right before we did," Mi-nam told his bandmate. "The one with the long hair and short shorts."

"He looks like a horse!" Jeremy exclaimed.

"I'm pretty sure her name's Hyang-soon," the keyboardist continued.

"Sounds like a match made in heaven," Tae-kyung murmured dryly.

"But aren't you supposed to have your interview with Reporter Park tomorrow?" Shin-woo reminded him.

That brought Mi-nam up short. "Oh, crap."

The guitarist smiled sympathetically. "I'd offer to trade with you, but I already had my interview the other day."

"I've already had mine, too," Tae-kyung added. "You switched with me first, remember?"

That meant Jeremy was Mi-nam's last hope. "Yes, we're meeting in Myeongdong on Saturday!" his last hope was insisting to his cell phone. "Oh, sure, you're saying no right now, but I bet you're still going to show up anyway!"

That made the keyboardist cringe. If there was a way to guarantee a no-show, that was it, but he didn't bother correcting Jeremy. He had other, bigger problems right now. "Hey, Jeremy! Get off the phone! I need to ask you something!"

Jeremy glared and tried to ignore him, but Mi-nam started shaking his arm and that was really annoying. "Argh, Mi-nam is bugging me!" he told Su-jin. "I'll call you back! Bye! This had better be important," he growled after hanging up.

"It is. You see, I have a date tomorrow," the keyboardist began.

"So?"

"_So_, I'm also supposed to have my interview with the writer tomorrow and I can't possibly go to both at the same time." He managed a smirk. "Contrary to public opinion, I'm not Superman."

"So?" Jeremy repeated, frowning. "What does that have to do with me?"

Mi-nam tried to keep the exasperation from his voice. He was trying to ask a favor, after all. _"So,"_ he said, "I can't meet with Reporter Park, but she needs someone to interview, and you're the only other one she hasn't spoken with yet."

"And you need me to take your place, right?" Finally catching on, the blond boy laughed, rubbing his hands together gleefully. "This is rich!"

"Come on, please say you'll do it!" the keyboardist pleaded. "I'll do all your chores!"

"We have a cleaning lady come in once a week," Jeremy said unsympathetically. "We don't have chores."

"But this might be The One!"

"I've heard you say that about the last dozen girls you've dated."

"Me, too," Shin-woo said.

"Shin-woo hyung, please don't help," Mi-nam groaned.

Chuckling, the guitarist did as he was told and turned his attentions to Tae-kyung. "You should probably take lessons from Jeremy on how to resist Mi-nam when he's trying to get you to do something for him."

* * *

It was a good thing that Tae-kyung decided not to take Shin-woo's advice, because it turned out that Mi-nam's persistence (or his nefarious methods, no one could ever be sure) eventually wore Jeremy down, and the next day, it was the disgruntled-looking blond boy appeared in the writer's office for an interview.

Oh-lan looked at him in surprise. "Was it you I scheduled for today?"

"No, noona," Jeremy told her. "It was supposed to be Go Mi-nam, but something came up and he can't make it today. I'm here in his place."

"Oh." She spoke slowly, surprised both by the sudden change in plans and the fact that he had called her "noona." The nickname wasn't unwelcome; it was just that his bandmates all still tended to address her more formally. "Well, most of the questions I prepared were for him, but I have some for you already. I suppose we can start with those and see where this interview goes."

"OK, but I don't want to have the interview here. Let's go somewhere else."

"Somewhere else" turned out to be an ice cream parlor not far from AN Entertainment headquarters, where Jeremy waved off her protests and ordered double-scoop sundaes for the both of them. "You should eat more," he told her. "Look at you, you're so skinny!"

"You sound like my father," Oh-lan said, shaking her head, as they took a quiet table in the back. Since it was getting rather late in the evening and the parlor was located on a quiet street, they probably wouldn't have to worry about interruptions.

"He's obviously a wise man." He spooned up the cherry off his own sundae and popped it into his mouth. "You should listen to him."

She laughed briefly and turned on her trusty recorder. "You're a bit of a health buff, aren't you?" she asked, trying to steer the discussion back to him.

"Well, I like having lots of energy," Jeremy answered. "So I try to make sure I can keep it up, especially when we're on tour and doing shows practically every night. And I know this isn't healthy," he added, nodding towards his ice cream. "I watch what I eat, but still let myself have treats every now and then."

"Do you think it's this high energy that got you into playing the drums?"

He pondered this, his entire face wrinkling in deep thought. "Yeah, I think so. That, and my good sense of rhythm. Of course, my bandmates have good rhythm, too, but they can't play drums like I can. I'm the best dancer in AN JELL, too."

"Are you really?" Oh-lan asked with a smile. Jeremy seemed to have a very healthy opinion of himself, but he said these things as though they were facts, without the slightest trace of arrogance in his voice.

The blond boy nodded. "I bet if we danced instead of playing instruments, and being the oldest wasn't important, then maybe I'd be the leader of the group."

"Do you want to be the leader of AN JELL?"

"Hmmm..." After a few moments' of thinking, he shook his head. "No. I know that being a leader isn't just about being the oldest or most popular member of the group. Tae-kyung hyung works very hard, writing songs, talking to reporters and stuff like that. If I were leader, I'd try my best to do those things, but I don't think I could do them as well as he does."

"You seem to admire him a lot."

"I do!" Jeremy said fervently. "I am a big fan of both my hyungs. They're the best!"

"And what about Go Mi-nam?" Oh-lan asked with a small smile. Based on her observations, there seemed to be a love-hate relationship going on between the two youngest AN JELL members.

He wrinkled his nose playfully, but laughed. "It's hard to say if I'm a fan of his because we haven't worked with each other for very long, but Mi-nam is pretty cool. I know you've seen us insult and play jokes on each other, but that's just something that guys do. We're the same age, so I don't have to worry so much about being formal with him." He grinned. "It's fun having someone in AN JELL to do silly things like that with."

Suddenly, a guarded expression crossed Jeremy's face. "But don't tell him I said that."

"It might be in the book," she told him truthfully.

"That's fine, but just don't tell him I said that."

Oh-lan paused. That did not make the least bit of sense, but he was a client and she did want to move on with the interview. "All right..." she said slowly. "Shall we talk about something else, then?"

* * *

A few days later, there was a knock on AN JELL's front door. "I'll get it," Mi-nam announced, shuffling through the living room.

When he opened the door, he found a very tall girl standing on the doorstep. "Delivery from Lord Stow's Bakery!" she announced with a bright smile that could otherwise be found on quite a few billboards and print ads all over Korea.

He grinned. "Ha-neul! Welcome back! Come on in!"

"Thanks," So Ha-neul replied, pulling her suitcase, which had two plastic bags full of yellow bakery cartons tied to the handle, through the door. "Is everyone home?"

"Yeah, everyone's here," he told her, and called out over his shoulder, "Hey, Shin-woo hyung! Special delivery for you!"

"I know," Shin-woo answered as he walked into the living room. "Ha-neul called me from the airport." He smiled at his girlfriend and pulled her in for a hug. "Hi, Ha-neul. Welcome back."

"I'm happy to be back," she said, burying her face in his shoulder. "I missed you, oppa."

"Ugh, get a room, you two," Mi-nam teased. He was glad to see his bandmate so happy, especially after what the two of them had gone through on the way to couple-hood, but he _really_ didn't need to watch any public displays of affection.

Shin-woo wrinkled his nose at the other boy over Ha-neul's shoulder, then drew back to regard her carefully. "You look a little tired," he observed, stroking her cheek with his thumb. "Did you get enough rest in Macau?"

"Yes, I did," she assured him. "It's probably just that I came straight here from the airport."

"Come, let's go to the kitchen and I'll make you some tea."

"Me, too?" Mi-nam asked hopefully.

"Yes," the guitarist laughed. "You, too."

* * *

Soon, everyone was gathered in the kitchen, drinking tea and eating the egg tarts Ha-neul had brought from Macau. "You guys can eat them all," she said them. "The ones for my dad and Su-jin are in that other bag."

"Su-jin's not coming?" Jeremy asked, disappointed.

She shook her head ruefully. "Sorry, Jeremy. I called her to ask if she wanted to come here, but she said she has to do something for her mother today."

The blond boy pouted for a few moments, then shrugged as he realized there was a bright side to the situation. "I guess that means I can eat these three tarts instead of saving them for her."

Tae-kyung grabbed one. "Hey, if those aren't Su-jin's, then they're communal property."

"I thought you said eggs didn't agree with you," Shin-woo said, looking amused.

"I didn't say I was allergic."

"So, how have you guys been?" Ha-neul asked them. "How's that book project coming along? Has the writer interviewed you yet, Shin-woo?"

"Yes. I think she's interviewed everyone except Mi-nam." He grinned at the keyboardist. "But you're _finally_ having your interview tomorrow, right?"

"I was supposed to," Mi-nam answered, grinning back, "but then Reporter Park had to postpone. Something about having to do another assignment."

Tae-kyung chuckled briefly. "Perhaps, Mi-nam, you weren't destined to be interviewed for this book," he said. "Maybe the writer will have to make up information about you instead."

* * *

That wasn't true, of course. Mi-nam's interview finally pushed through a few days later, if about twenty minutes behind schedule.

"Sorry I'm late," he said as he swaggered into the writer's office. He saw her sitting on the couch, garbed in her usual black, and for a brief moment, he felt as though he were eleven years old again, being summoned to explain to Mother Superior why the statues in the garden were all wearing bras.

She looked up and, seeing that it was him, put aside the book that she had been reading. "It's all right," she told him with a polite smile. "Please sit down."

Mi-nam flopped onto the other end of the couch. "Are you using that for inspiration?" he asked, arching an eyebrow at the book. Judging from its size and very colorful cover, it was more for schoolchildren than career girls.

"Hmm?" She glanced back at her book and colored slightly. "Oh, no. I was just taking a break and doing some... very light reading."

He smirked. "OK, if you say so."

Oh-lan watched him stretch out his legs and lounge in his seat. His suave, reckless air was a stark contrast to his delicate, almost feminine features. It would have been interesting to ask if he purposely cultivated that attitude to come across as more masculine, if such a question didn't seem so insulting. "Do you like to read?" she asked instead.

"Me?" He laughed briefly. "No, not really. Sorry. I mean, I read magazines like yours," Mi-nam explained quickly, "but I don't really read serious stuff, like books." He nodded towards the one she had just put away.

"Why not?"

He looked at her blankly. "Because... I just don't," he said. Judging from his tone of voice, he obviously didn't know what this had to do with anything.

"If you can read a magazine, then you can just as easily read a book, right?" Oh-lan pressed.

"No, you can't," he told her after a thoughtful pause. "Sure, I know how to read, but it's not as easy to put down a book, and I'm much too busy to read books these days."

"Much too busy recording and fulfilling all your business commitments?"

"Yeah, that, and... other things." Mi-nam grinned when the writer raised an eyebrow. He could tell that she knew what he meant.

Suddenly, she stopped writing. "My pen's out of ink," she complained, scratching at the paper.

"Why do you still take notes when you're recording the interview anyway?" he asked.

"The recording is just backup, to make sure I don't misquote you. Besides, I like to write down ideas while I'm interviewing." She rummaged through her bag for another pen, making an impatient noise when she couldn't find one.

"There's a pen in your hair," he reminded her, even though he still thought it was dumb to have to write stuff down. If he got this interview out of the way quickly enough, maybe he could still take that cute trainee out on a date.

"Oh, right." She reached up and pulled it out, making another impatient noise when the action undid her scruffy bun and sent masses of wavy, wiry hair tumbling around her face.

Mi-nam laughed. Who knew that such a small person could have so much hair? "Here," he said, pulling a hair tie from his pocket and sliding it across the table at her. His own hair was much shorter than hers, but it was still long enough to need tying every so often.

"Thank you." Accepting the elastic band, the writer quickly got her hair out of the way and returned to the matter at hand. "So," she said briskly, "can you tell me a little about those 'other things' that are keeping you busy?"

"I think you already have an idea of what those are."

He had a tellingly cocky smirk on his face. "I suppose you're talking about girls?" Oh-lan asked. "Does that make our conversation off the record now?"

"I don't mind talking about them," he told her. He shrugged nonchalantly, but there was a faintly diabolical gleam in his eyes, as though daring her to take the interview in that direction.

She met his gaze squarely. It wasn't directly relevant to the focus of the book, but a discussion on dating could provide insight into Mi-nam's personality. (_However flawed it is,_ she thought dryly.) Furthermore, as ashamed as she was to admit it, it might be sensational enough to help sell copies of the book.

"All right," Oh-lan said finally, "we'll talk about it." President Ahn could make the final decision. "How do you find the time to date, given all your obligations with AN JELL?"

"Well," he began, "if you want to be able to do what you want, you have to make the time for it." He grinned and linked his hands behind his head. "And you have to keep an eye out for the right opportunities. You'll never know when you'll meet someone nice."

She nodded non-comittally and jotted down a few notes. From the sound of it, Mi-nam was seeing more than one girl, or he was going through them like peanuts. "Aren't you concerned about what your fans might think if they find out about this?" she asked.

Mi-nam shrugged again. "I think that real fans, like real friends, would want their idols to be happy. AN JELL really appreciates our fans' support, but we're people, too. We like pretty girls and get lonely, just like normal guys."

Just then, he realized that he was referring not just to himself, but to all his bandmates, and hoped that the writer wouldn't catch on. "Besides," he added, "I'm not really looking to settle down with any one girl right now, so who knows? Maybe I'll date a fan someday." He laughed. "They should be happy about that, right?"

"I suppose so."

The writer didn't show any expression, but Mi-nam was picking up some pretty disapproving vibes from her. That didn't matter, he thought. He didn't mind if she thought he was some irresponsible womanizer. Liking girls was part of who he was, anyway. She didn't need to know about the rest.


	5. Shark in the Water

**Disclaimer:** The AN JELL-verse belongs to the Hong sisters, creators of _You're_ _Beautiful_.

**Author's Notes:** Thanks to Buru-beri-chan, KAZU (dot) BOU (nice to hear from you again!) and alex for the reviews!

_

* * *

Chapter Five — Shark in the Water (VV Brown)_

"Congratulations on finally having your interview, Go Mi-nam!" Jeremy crowed during a break in AN JELL's recording session the next day. "You have become a man at last!"

"Oh, please," Mi-nam retorted. "Unlike you, I didn't need to have that interview to become a man."

Shin-woo chuckled. "Well, it's still a good thing you finally got it out of the way. It wasn't so bad, was it?"

"No, hyung, it wasn't." He glanced at the engineering booth, where the writer was deep in conversation with Producer Woo. "She asked some pretty interesting questions. Definitely different from what we usually get asked, that's for sure."

"Did she ask you about what you thought of the rest of us?" Jeremy asked eagerly. "She asked each of us that question. I've been asking Tae-kyung hyung what he said, but he doesn't want to tell me."

"That's because you have to wait until the book comes out," Tae-kyung told him, scowling.

"What did you say about me, Mi-nam?" the blond boy persisted.

The keyboardist was spared from having to tell Jeremy about his interview by the appearance of President Ahn in the engineering booth. He stopped to exchange greetings with Producer Woo and Reporter Park, and then, seeing that the band wasn't currently recording, entered the studio. "Hello, boys!" he said to them. "How is the recording going?"

"Just fine, President Ahn," Tae-kyung assured him. "We're just taking a break right now."

"Did you need anything, sir?" Shin-woo asked.

"I'm glad you asked, Shin-woo," President Ahn replied, presenting him with a thin white envelope. "This came for you by official messenger today."

"For me?" Looking puzzled, the guitarist took the envelope and opened it, withdrawing a single sheet of paper.

"What does it say, hyung?" Jeremy asked, peering at the page.

A happy grin spread across Shin-woo's face as he read his letter. "It's from the Pan Chung-ae Memorial Children's Foundation," he announced. "They've chosen our song for their new sports campaign."

"Really?" Mi-nam asked as Jeremy whooped and shook Shin-woo's shoulders ecstatically. "Awesome."

"That's wonderful," Tae-kyung said with a warm smile. "Congratulations, Shin-woo." Although the guitarist had referred to it as an AN JELL song, it was actually one of Shin-woo's compositions.

"Thanks," he answered, still grinning. "I should call—" He caught himself and glanced uncertainly at President Ahn.

The older man smiled. "You should call Ha-neul and let her know the good news," he finished. "After all, she was the one who told you about this opportunity."

He gave a nervous laugh and nodded. "Exactly."

"You might want to do that now," President Ahn suggested. "Producer Woo might want to get back to work soon. As for me, I'm going to give the foundation a call so we can discuss AN JELL's involvement in the campaign." He gave Shin-woo a fatherly nod. "Congratulations again."

"Do you think President Ahn knows about the two of you, Shin-woo hyung?" Mi-nam wondered when the manager was gone.

"Yes, he probably does." The guitarist turned red. "He sort of... _almost_ caught us backstage at the last fanmeeting."

"He did?" Mi-nam chuckled. "Well, congratulations. It looks like you've become a man, too."

* * *

Oh-lan heard all about the foundation and its campaign from Stylist Wang, who dragged her along on a shopping trip to Itaewon. "I need to buy cool sports gear for the band," the flamboyantly dressed woman said as she strutted down the street, her spike heels clicking noisily. "They're not just going to sing the official song for the campaign, they're going to be in the advertisements, too."

"It's great that AN JELL is taking time out of their busy schedules to contribute to a good cause," Oh-lan said, walking briskly to try and keep up. Despite the fact that the stylist was wearing heels, Oh-lan still had to take two strides to each one of hers, _and_ dodge the crowds of tourists milling around. "Of course, they wouldn't be able to do this without your help."

Stylist Wang preened at the compliment. "You know, it's really refreshing to have someone like you recognizing the staff's contributions to AN JELL," she said. "Of course, President Ahn is a great boss, but for someone who's not really in the company to care about how we support AN JELL..."

"As a reporter, I work behind the scenes, too," Oh-lan pointed out. "I know how it can get sometimes."

"I guess you do." The taller woman smiled. "By the way, Manager Ma told me he's really excited about being interviewed tomorrow."

She smiled. "President Ahn wants the book to be about the making of the new album. The band will tell a big part of that story, but the people around them will have their own points of view and help complete the bigger picture."

They had a pleasant chat about Stylist Wang's duties and experiences as part of the AN JELL staff while the woman picked out colorful athletic wear and brand-new badminton equipment for the photo shoot. Then suddenly, a colorful window display caught the stylist's eye. "Ooh, let's go in here!"

There was a mighty yank on her arm and Oh-lan squeaked in surprise. The next thing she knew, she was standing in a forest of trendy clothing. "But these are clothes for women," she said. "You can't find anything for AN JELL here."

"I'm not looking for things for _them_, silly!" Stylist Wang told her. "I want to pick out some things for _you_!"

"What?"

"Reporter Park, you're a great person, but your outfit has been driving me _crazy_." She eyed Oh-lan's khaki slacks and dark blazer critically. "What you're wearing looks like a school uniform — and even worse, a _boy's_ school uniform! And that hair!"

"It's a perm; it'll grow out," she replied defensively, even as she thought that Stylist Wang, with her own frizzy mane, didn't have the right to cast stones when it came to hair. "And I can't afford a complete makeover on my salary. You might be used to shopping on an almost-unlimited budget, but I'm not."

"You're not going to throw everything out. That stuff is classic; you just need to mix them more colorful, trendy things for a more interesting look." She prodded Oh-lan critically. "I think you can also afford to wear more form-fitting clothes — you definitely have the body for it!"

Ignoring all protests, Stylist Wang hustled her and an armload of clothing into a fitting room. Before she knew what had happened, Oh-lan found herself at the checkout counter with several pieces that the stylist promised would help revitalize her look. By a stroke of luck, all of it was on sale, too, so she couldn't even argue that they were too expensive.

"Now, your assignment is to _blend_ your new things into your wardrobe," Stylist Wang instructed. "I promise you, it all looks great on you, and now you have to make sure you actually wear them!"

"And what about the hair?" Oh-lan asked, arching a quizzical eyebrow. She hadn't forgotten that the stylist had picked on that, too.

"We'll get to that eventually. Now, don't let all my hard work go to waste! I normally don't give style advice for free, you know!"

* * *

Upon getting home that night, Oh-lan spread her new things out on her bed. "What do you think, Genghis?" she asked.

At the sound of his name, a fat gray cat leapt onto the bed to investigate. He sniffed at the clothes, let out an indifferent _"Rrroooow,"_ curled up and went to sleep.

She chuckled. "I guess you don't care much about this kind of thing. It doesn't matter what I wear as long as I keep your food and water bowls filled, right?"

Well, to her untrained eye, she supposed that her new purchases were all right. They were a lot more colorful and flashy than she was used to, but they did look nice. Like the good student (and child of college professors) that she was, she was going to take Stylist Wang's assignment seriously and think of ways to mix and match and spice up her wardrobe.

As it happened, Oh-lan also had an opportunity to try out her new look — that night, she was having dinner at her parents' house. That was probably the safest place to wear a new outfit for the first time; if there was anyone who could accept you unconditionally, it was your family, wasn't it?

Nodding decisively, she surveyed the clothing spread out on her bed. Which would she try first? The skirt with large poppies printed all over it?

_No, _Oh-lan thought, _that's too bold. Besides,Genghis is sleeping on it._

The tailored shirt that tied around the waist?

_That's for work._

The ruffled red blouse?

She made a face. _Too tight. Why did I even buy that in the first place?_

Suddenly, it occurred to her that trying out her new look on her parents might not be the best idea. They had always been encouraging of her, but now that she thought about it, neither of them, not even her mother, knew much about fashion (unless it was some sort of historical costume that she would never wear in public).

"I think I'll just wear my usual clothes," she muttered, heading for her closet for a clean shirt and pants.

* * *

Oh-lan felt a little ashamed of herself for not going through with Stylist Wang's assignment, but promptly forgot all of that when she arrived at her parents' house in Yongin and her father, Professor Park Chung-il, answered the door. "Oh-lan, you're here!" he said, beaming like a bespectacled moon. "Come in, come in!"

"Hello, Appa," she replied as she entered the house and changed out of her shoes. It felt warm and cozy indoors after the walk in the cool early-autumn evening from the bus stop. Delicious cooking smells danced in the air. "I'm not late, am I?"

"Oh, no! We're just putting the finishing touches on dinner. Yobo, Oh-lan is here!" he called to his wife.

"I know," Professor Han answered, emerging from the back of the house. Like her daughter, she was slender and petite. "I think everyone in Yongin knows."

"Can't a man be glad to see his little girl?"

Oh-lan smiled. "Hi, Omma," she said. "Is there anything I can do to help?"

"Oh, no, dinner's just about ready," her mother answered. "Come, help us bring it into the dining room."

Dinner wasn't fancy, just rice, grilled pork and some vegetable side dishes, but it was nevertheless a happy meal. With both her parents busy and Oh-lan herself working and living away from home, the family tried to make the most of the increasingly rare occasions that they were all together.

"Your Uncle Chung-ho said that you're very busy writing that book," her father said as he helped himself to some of the pork. "How is it going?"

"I think it's going well," Oh-lan replied. "I've already done a lot of interviews. Everyone has been very cooperative."

"They're not giving you a hard time just because you're a woman?" her mother asked.

She smiled. "No, Omma. I made it very clear from the start that I mean business."

"Good."

"The book isn't really an investigative piece, since I'm being paid to present the band in a certain way," Oh-lan went on, adding some sautéed spinach to the lettuce wrap she was making, "but it's also not far from how they really are so I don't feel as though I'm compromising my integrity as a journalist."

"Just do your best, that's all you need to worry about," Professor Park advised. "Your uncle said he recommended you to the company because you were very bright and one of his best writers."

"Yes, that's what he said when he asked me if I wanted to do it," Oh-lan said with a smile. At work, she and her uncle took care to maintain a strictly professional relationship, so for him to tell her that in a meeting meant a lot. "And I am doing my best. The book is going to turn out great, you'll see."

* * *

Meanwhile, back at AN Entertainment, AN JELL was putting the finishing touches on "Go For It," the song that Shin-woo had written for the sports campaign being launched by the Pan Chung-ae Memorial Children's Foundation.

Producer Woo gave them a double thumbs-up from the engineering booth as the final note died away. "Great job, AN JELL!"

The engineering staff applauded and Shin-woo smiled at his bandmates. "That was really great. Thanks for helping me record the song, guys."

"You don't have to thank us, hyung!" Jeremy got up from behind his drum kit to give the guitarist a high five. "Of course we were going to help you record your song!"

"Well, most of us were definitely going to do it," Mi-nam teased as the band drifted over to the side table, where drinks and snacks awaited them, "but I don't know about brother-in-law over here."

"Hey, I'm part of this group, too," Tae-kyung reminded him. "Of course I would also be in on this project. Speaking of which," he added, addressing Shin-woo in a less severe tone, "this was a good song that you wrote, Shin-woo. I think it turned out well."

"It turned out well thanks to all of you," the guitarist replied, beaming. "I hope the foundation likes it."

Jeremy bit into a pork bun and looked up suddenly. "Hey, where's the reporter noona?" he wondered, his mouth full.

As one, the boys looked at the engineering booth and sure enough, Reporter Park's usual seat beside Producer Woo was empty. "Maybe she's doing some work for her magazine," Shin-woo said. "She's still writing for them even though she's also writing our book, right?"

"That's probably it," Mi-nam said with a shrug. They had become used to seeing the small figure in black at the studio, but what was the big deal if she occasionally didn't show up?

_"Or..."_ Tae-kyung added, speaking in a low voice so he wouldn't be overheard, "she could be off digging up dirt on us. I know she's been interviewing some of the staffers, like Manager Ma and Coordi-noona Wang."

"Well, they _are_ involved in our lives as a band," Shin-woo reminded him.

"Yes, but the other day, I also saw Reporter Park interviewing some of the fans who hang around outside the agency all the time. Why would she do that if she wants to write about us making an album?"

"Maybe it's because we're not idols if we don't have fans," Jeremy suggested.

"Or maybe she wants to write a tell-all book," Tae-kyung said ominously, "and now she's trying to pry into our personal lives by asking those fans for gossip."

"Why would she do that? President Ahn hired her to do a job," Shin-woo pointed out. "She won't get paid if she doesn't do what she's supposed to."

"She might be able to convince him that a tell-all book would sell better than something about us making an album." He scowled and gave the cap on his water bottle a savage twist. "Or she could be planning to write another book on her own."

The guitarist looked doubtful. "I don't know, Tae-kyung. It all seems a little paranoid to me."

"Wait," Mi-nam said thoughtfully. "Even if she doesn't write that kind of book, brother-in-law has a point. What if the writer asks too many questions and winds up finding out something that could give us problems later on? What if she finds out about the girls?"

Shin-woo paused in the middle of biting into a sandwich, his eyes widening. "Her name did come up that day when I got the letter from the foundation," he recalled. It had been President Ahn who had mentioned it, but he had also said that Shin-woo should call her, implying that they had some kind of connection.

"_I_ haven't said anything about Su-jin while she's around," Jeremy said smugly.

"Maybe you haven't yet," Tae-kyung told him, "but what if you forget next time and start yelling at her about being her boyfriend while Reporter Park is around?"

"Or she could try to follow you while you try to go on a date," Mi-nam added. "The reporters who hang around outside the agency do that to me all the time. Well," he amended, smirking, "they try, anyway."

A tense silence fell on the group. The keyboardist watched his bandmates ponder the things he had just brought up. It was obvious that they hadn't considered the problems of being a celebrity with a serious girlfriend. Mi-nam supposed that he was lucky that he hadn't spent so much time living in the eye of the storm that he'd had some time to actually think of such strategies.

"There's really only one thing we can do," Tae-kyung said finally.

"I'm not breaking up with Su-jin again!" Jeremy declared.

The vocalist shushed him, scowling. "No one said anything about breaking up with anyone. What I meant was we have to be very careful when Reporter Park is around so that she doesn't hear or see anything that'll make her curious."

"Oh, OK. I like that!"

"We can't do anything about her being here," Tae-kyung continued, "so we have to be careful and watch out for each other, too."

"You can give the girls code names," Mi-nam suggested. "That way you can talk about them while she's around without mentioning their names and giving her clues."

"Good idea, Go Mi-nam!" Jeremy said. "Su-jin's name will be Cookie Monster." He nodded decisively.

Mi-nam gave his bandmate a look. _"Cookie Monster?"_ he repeated skeptically. "Really?"

"Why not? Cookie Monster is cute. And I like cookies."

He snorted. "You'd better be ready with that explanation if she ever finds out that her code name is 'Cookie Monster.'"

The blond boy glared at him, but instead of sniping back, asked, "What's Ha-neul's code name going to be, Shin-woo hyung?"

Shin-woo thought about it for a moment. "Batgirl," he said finally.

"Why Batgirl?"

"Just because."

Mi-nam supposed there was a story there, because the guitarist seemed to be having trouble looking anyone in the eye, but figured it wasn't a good idea to pry. "And what about you, brother-in-law?" he asked Tae-kyung. "What's your code name for my sister?"

"That's easy," the vocalist replied. "Mother Teresa."

"What, seriously? Don't get me wrong, Mother Teresa's great and everything, but can't you pick someone prettier?" He and Mi-nyeo looked a lot alike, after all, and Mi-nam didn't want to think that he looked like Mother Teresa, of all people.

Tae-kyung scowled at him. "I'm not choosing a code name for _you_," he said. "Can we get back to business? Apart from speaking in code, as an added precaution, I think a little distraction is in order..."

It took Mi-nam a while to realize that his bandmates were all looking at him. "What?" he asked blankly.

"We need you, Go Mi-nam," Jeremy told him seriously.

"You're our main line of defense," Shin-woo added.

"What are you talking about? What do _I_ have to do with distractions—" His jaw dropped. "Oh, no. No way."

"You don't have to date Reporter Park," the guitarist assured him. "Just, you know, talk to her and keep her in a good mood, and run interference if it looks like she might find out something she's not supposed to."

"But why _me_?"

"Well, you read her magazine. Out of all of us, you'd have the most to talk about with her."

"Aren't you always bragging that you're a master at charming the ladies?" Jeremy challenged him. "Now's your chance to prove it."

"Isn't the fact that I go out with a different girl every week enough proof?" Mi-nam retorted.

Tae-kyung arched an eyebrow. "Speaking of girls," he said, "you're also the only one of us who doesn't have a girlfriend. Even though it's all going to be perfectly innocent, you wouldn't want your sister getting the wrong message, do you?"

"And Shin-woo hyung and I can't do it, either," Jeremy added, his expression earnest. "I mean, Batgirl and Cookie Monster aren't related to you, but you wouldn't want them to be hurt, either, right?"

The keyboardist opened his mouth to reply, then shut it again with a frown, realizing that he had been neatly cornered. He definitely didn't want Mi-nyeo worrying about anything, and the other girls were his friends. "All right, I'll do it," he said with a heavy sigh. "Babysitting the writer had better not cramp my style."


	6. Sweet Talk, Sweet Talk

**Disclaimer:** The AN JELL-verse belongs to the Hong sisters, creators of _You're_ _Beautiful_, and the book _Wolf of the Plains_ to Conn Iggulden. (It is an awesome novel about Genghis Khan, and I highly recommend it.) I have no idea whether it's been translated into Korean yet, but I'm assuming that it has. Also, Genghis Khan belongs to himself and Chocopies to the LOTTE Corporation. At least, I understand that they were the first ones to produce them.

**Author's Notes:** Thanks to spicegirls08, thehappybutlonelyone and KAZU (dot) BOU for the reviews!

_

* * *

Chapter Six — Sweet Talk, Sweet Talk (The New Pornographers)_

"I don't feel comfortable doing this," Mi-nam muttered. "Reporter Park is so not my type."

"Don't be a baby." Jeremy pressed the box into his hands. "This isn't a romantic gift; we're giving all the staffers the same thing."

"Maybe we should give her makeup."

"You don't give makeup during Chuseok!" the blond boy scoffed. "Besides, if she's not your type, why are you talking about giving her makeup?"

"Just get it over with, please, Mi-nam?" Tae-kyung sighed impatiently.

Dragging his feet to show his displeasure, Mi-nam nevertheless followed orders and made his way to the writer's office. "Knock, knock," he called as he knocked on her door.

The door opened a few moments later and the writer peeked out, adjusting her heavy-framed eyeglasses. "Yes?... Oh, Go Mi-nam," she greeted him when she saw him standing out in the hallway. "What can I do for you?"

"Nothing much," he answered with his most charming smile. "I just stopped by to give you this, as a thank-you from AN JELL. Chuseok is coming up, after all, and we wanted you to know that we really appreciate all your hard work."

As a reporter, Oh-lan was used to receiving these goodwill tokens, especially around the holidays, but she smiled with genuine gratitude. It was always nice to get some recognition. She opened the box and discovered the array of _sangpyeon_, rice cakes made especially for the holiday, inside. Although these were traditionally steamed over pine needles, the cakes in the box were still uncooked so that they wouldn't go bad right away.

"Thank you very much for the gift," she said. "My parents will enjoy them when I go home for the holidays."

"Will you be traveling far to visit your family?" Mi-nam asked.

"No, just to Yongin," she replied easily. With the holiday break coming up, everyone was discussing their plans. "How about you?"

"Oh, I'm not going anywhere. My sister will visit, but we'll still be working over the break."

"At least you'll still get to spend some time with your family."

"Yeah."

What was shaping up to be an awkward break in the conversation was saved when Oh-lan suddenly remembered something. "Oh! It's a good thing you stopped by," she said. "I almost forgot that I have something for you, too."

"For me?" Mi-nam asked, but she had already disappeared back into her office.

Soon, she was at the door again. "Here," she said, holding something out to him — the hair tie he had given her on the day of their one-on-one interview. "I've been meaning to return this, but kept forgetting."

Laughing, he shook his head. "You didn't have to give this back. It's just a rubber band."

"No, please take it. I don't like borrowing things from people and not returning them. Besides," she added piously, folding her hands like Mi-nyeo getting ready to say her prayers, "I have a whole bunch of these in my bag now. Stylist Wang has ordered me to stop using pens as hair accessories."

"She did?" Mi-nam asked in mock surprise. He knew that he was acting like an idiot, but the writer was joking around for once, and he was supposed to keep her in a good mood, wasn't he? "But if you don't have a pen in your hair, how will we know that it's you?"

"I'll probably still do that," she confided, "but at least I'll have something to use if Stylist Wang catches me."

"Good," he replied with a decisive nod. "We don't want to keep you being yourself."

"That's nice to hear." The writer smiled, and once again he wondered what it was about her that didn't make him think of nuns anymore.

"Uh..." he said then, just managing to remember that it was his turn to speak. "I should get going. Our break must be over by now."

"Of course," she said, preparing to back inside her office. "Thank you again for the gift."

* * *

Mi-nam thought that his bandmates would leave him alone after he delivered the rice cakes, but Jeremy, of course, had to spoil everything by announcing that he was going on a date with Su-jin before she went out of town with her parents for Chuseok. Thus, barely twenty-four hours after presenting her with the _sangpyeon_, he was herding the writer out of AN Entertainment and towards a book café down the street.

"I was in the middle of something!" she protested.

"I'm sure it can wait." He took her hand and tucked it in his elbow to keep her from running away; when she disengaged, he grabbed her wrist and held it fast. Currently, he was torn between venting his annoyance at Jeremy, and maintaining a smooth façade. Fortunately for Jeremy, the latter won out. Go Mi-nam never had a woman run away from him.

"What are we doing here?" she asked when they entered the café and he hustled her over to the coffee bar.

"Just think of it as a gesture of appreciation," he told her, releasing her arm and ordering a caffè Americano.

"But you guys already gave me rice cakes, just yesterday," she reminded him.

"That was from all of us. This is from just me. Now, what would you like? It's my treat."

Surprised, the writer asked for a latte. "You're not trying to make me give you special attention in the book, are you?" she asked suspiciously while the barista made their drinks.

"Of course not!" Mi-nam grinned. "Would you do it, though?"

"Of course not!"

"It didn't hurt to ask," he said with a good-natured shrug. "If you must know, I brought you here because I think you've been working too hard. Didn't you just ask me something related to work just now? My gift to you is an hour outside of the office, where you don't have to think about work. Actually," he added, "I'm making that a rule — for this one hour, you are not allowed to think about work."

For a moment, he thought she was going to argue, but instead she blinked and said softly, "Oh. Well... that sounds very nice."

It was Mi-nam's turn to be surprised. "Doesn't anyone ever tell you when you're working too hard?" They didn't really do that in AN JELL, but the bandmates nevertheless all looked out for each other; and besides his bandmates, he also had a sister who had worried about him ever since the day they were born.

She shrugged. "I live alone, so there's no one to take care of me but myself. I'm never sick, though," she added, somewhat defensively. "And I'm busy doing what I love, so I guess I'm doing a good job."

"I'm sure you are," he agreed, "but for one hour, I'll take care of you."

He paid for their coffees and two pastries, and carried their snacks to a table near the window. "Thank you," the writer said when they sat down. "This is very nice of you. I didn't know there was a place like this in the area... something tells me I'll visit here a lot from now on."

Mi-nam smiled. "I'm glad you like it, and I'm not surprised that you do." He looked around at the books displayed on shelves and tables around the room. "It looks like there's a lot here that would keep you busy."

As he looked around, he spied Su-jin stepping into the café with a guy that he assumed was Jeremy in disguise. The sight caused him to make a strangled noise in his throat. Fortunately, Jeremy and Su-jin heard it and saw him and the writer sitting inside.

Her back was to the door, so she didn't see them, but she was facing Mi-nam and saw the strange expression that crossed his face. "Is something wrong?" she asked.

Mi-nam shook his head, coughing for effect, as he watched the pair make their escape. "I'm fine," he assured her. "It was one of those strange things between a sneeze and a cough, and it got stuck in my throat. I should probably have some coffee."

The writer nodded seriously. "That sounds like a good idea."

He took a sip from his cup and watched her take a bite of her pastry. As she daintily licked frosting from her fingers, Mi-nam realized just what it was that had been bothering him about her appearance: even though everything about her seemed drab and severe at first glance, Park Oh-lan did have a pouty rosebud of a mouth. Even though she wasn't wearing any lipstick, her lips were pink and smooth, the top one just slightly fuller than the bottom. He wondered whether they tasted like strawberries.

Mi-nam blinked and shook his head. _I shouldn't be thinking about that._

She looked up at him, and for a moment he feared that she had read his thoughts. However, she asked, "Are you feeling better?"

"Huh? Oh, yeah." He nodded jerkily. "Much better, thanks."

* * *

"That was close," Jeremy said as he and Su-jin entered a small restaurant further down the street.

"Who was the person with Go Mi-nam?" she asked.

"The reporter who's writing the book about us." A waiter came and seated them at a quiet table near the back. "Tae-kyung hyung suspects that she might be planning to write a tell-all book besides the one that President Ahn wants her to write, so we're making sure she doesn't see anything about our personal lives that might cause a scandal.

"But it's not because I'm ashamed of you," he added earnestly, taking her hand. "I just want to protect you. You don't know what fans are like."

"Oh, yes, I do," Su-jin said, looking down at their joined hands but, to Jeremy's delight, not making any effort to withdraw. "I saw what happened last year when news came out that Tae-kyung and Shin-woo had girlfriends. A lot of the die-hard fans went crazy."

He grinned. "Did _you_ go crazy?"

"Of course not," she replied, rolling her eyes. "I wasn't so silly as to claim one of the AN JELL members as my exclusive property."

"Yeah? Well, I kind of like the idea of being your exclusive property."

Su-jin's cheeks turned pink and she busied herself with opening the menu. "Anyway, what I mean is that I understand what you're trying to do with the reporter; and if you're trying to protect your privacy from her, then I guess it's a good thing that Ha-neul has a photo shoot for our unni's sports campaign today."

"Yeah, otherwise, she and Shin-woo hyung would be along, too, and this would be a double date."

She was willing to admit that this was a date, but felt that things were starting to sound a bit too serious. "At least this way, there's only one guy here wearing a dumb disguise," she snickered. That day, Jeremy was wearing a dark wig and fake mustache. Like most of his other disguises, it looked ridiculous, but at least he wasn't wearing sunglasses indoors.

"Hey, if you want, I can rent out this whole restaurant," he suggested. "That way, we can have the place to ourselves and I can take this stuff off."

"Omo!" She shook her head vehemently. "Ha-neul would kill me. I already told you that she has this thing about you spending too much money on me. Just keep it on, it's cheaper."

Presently, the waiter reappeared to take their orders. Su-jin ordered a salad. "Are you on a diet again?" Jeremy asked her after placing his own order for a bacon cheeseburger and fries. "Haven't I already told you that you don't need to go on a diet?"

She gave him an irritated look. "First of all, this is my body and I'll take care of it however I like," she told him. "Second of all, I'm not eating a salad because I'm on a diet. Ha-neul and me are having dinner with our unni tonight, after the photo shoot, and I want to save space for that."

(A third reason, and the most important one, was that salads were easier to eat than sandwiches. Even though Jeremy didn't seem to care, Su-jin didn't want to eat like a pig in front of him. She wasn't going to tell him that, though.)

Fortunately, the answer that she did give seemed to satisfy him. "Good," he said with an approving nod. "Personally, it's not much fun to hug skinny girls."

"I wouldn't know about that. I don't hug girls that much."

He laughed briefly, giving her that half-smile that she still refused to admit did funny things to her insides, and wisely dropped the subject. "So, the campaign launch is in a few weeks," he said instead. "Will you be there?"

She nodded. "It's one of Kyung-soon unni's biggest projects for the foundation. A lot of us are coming to support her, and Ha-neul of course. How about you?"

"Of course we'll be there. Everyone who appeared in the ads is supposed to come, and we're performing the official song, too." He paused. "It's too bad that we need to pretend that we're just friends at the launch. It would have been nice to be open about our relationship."

Su-jin toyed with her water glass, moving it around in circles. She wanted to tell him that they didn't have a relationship to be open about, but he sounded so sincere and she didn't want to wreck the atmosphere — or worse, make a scene. "Well, you did say you're trying to hide your private lives from that reporter."

Suddenly, Jeremy brightened. "Hey, we don't have to _totally_ hide it," he told her. "I just remembered that my mom called today to tell me that she and my dad are coming to Korea next month. You should meet them when they get here."

The water glass stopped moving. "Me?"

"Of course, you. It's only proper that they meet my girlfriend, right?"

"But I'm not—"

"That's enough!" he interrupted with a scowl. Even though they disagreed about a lot of things, largely because they both found it fun to argue, he wasn't going to accept anything less than a "yes" in this case. "Whatever you are, you're definitely the girl that I want to make my girlfriend," he told her firmly. "That's reason enough for you to have to meet my parents. And that's the final word on it."

Instead of getting angry at his heavy-handed approach, Su-jin just looked at him, surprised into silence... and was that a sparkle of admiration in her eyes?

_Aha,_ Jeremy thought smugly, even though he kept a severe frown on his face. _So Su-jin digs alpha males._

Then she started giggling. "I wish you could see the look on your face. That mustache makes you look so silly!"

_On the other hand..._ he decided as she dug out her cell phone to take a picture, maybe the alpha male approach wasn't as helpful as he thought.

* * *

Not surprisingly, Mi-nam and Jeremy were the objects of much teasing on the ride home from the studio. "How were your _daaaates_?" Tae-kyung asked, smirking.

"Mine went very well, thank you," Jeremy answered happily. Mi-nam scowled at him, still annoyed over having _his_ day disrupted, but the blond boy was either totally oblivious or gloating on purpose.

"Did Su-jin finally take you back for good?" Shin-woo wanted to know.

"Well, no, and we argued about that—"

"—as usual," Tae-kyung interjected.

"Yeah, but it was still very nice. I'm going to introduce her to my parents when they visit next month."

"Sounds serious."

"It is," the drummer confirmed with a smile. "And Su-jin said she's willing to meet them."

"That's a big deal," Shin-woo told him, reaching over to give him a friendly punch on the arm. (Mi-nam wished he could sock Jeremy one, too.) "Congratulations."

"How about you, Go Mi-nam?" Tae-kyung asked him. "How was _your _date?"

"It wasn't a date," he reminded the vocalist. "And she gave me homework."

Laughter filled the van. "You're kidding!"

"Nope." There was a rustle as Mi-nam kicked a bag at his feet. "She sales-talked me into buying some books that she thought I might like. Now I have to read them because she's probably going to ask me what I think of them."

"Maybe you'll have to write book reports, too." The guitarist tried and failed to suppress a laugh. "Sorry."

"I wouldn't be surprised if I did," he grumbled. "So, as you can see, I didn't go on a date — I attended a one-on-one lecture about books."

"At least you got some new books out of it," Tae-kyung said with obviously false brightness.

"And you helped me make some real progress with Su-jin," Jeremy added, still grinning from ear to ear. He sounded like he really appreciated Mi-nam's running interference with the writer, but the glint of mischief in his eyes said that he was also obviously enjoying the fact that he hadn't had to take one for the team. "You're a good friend, Go Mi-nam!"

"Yeah, yeah."

* * *

Mi-nam's bandmates teased him some more when they got home and discovered that most of his new books were written for young adults. "She's making you read _baby books_?" Jeremy laughed as they hung out in the kitchen, having late-night snacks and looking over the books. He ripped open a box of Chocopies, scattering them all over the counter and earning a disapproving look from Tae-kyung.

"They're not 'baby books,' they're for young adults," Mi-nam corrected him. He had known they would laugh at him, but fortunately this wasn't all his doing. "I know people our age are supposed to be too old for these things, but they're what Reporter Park recommended that I read. She knows we have really busy schedules, so I would be able to read these without taking up too much time."

"That makes sense," Shin-woo admitted as he poured himself some more tea. "I guess it might not matter _what_ you read if you read for fun. The important thing is that you get to relax."

"And even though they're for kids, that doesn't mean the writers aren't good," the keyboardist went on. "Reporter Park says she still has her copies of these books, and she still buys these authors' new books when they come out."

"Hey, they're not all baby books," Tae-kyung observed, picking up the only "adult" one out of the pile of books and Chocopies.

_"Wolf of the Plains,"_ Shin-woo read, peering at the title.

"It's a novel about Genghis Khan," Mi-nam told them, happy to show off this book, at least. "Reporter Park has read a lot of books about him and she says this is the best one. She says there's a lot of action so you won't notice that it's so long."

"That sounds interesting. May I borrow it after you're finished?"

"Me, too!" Jeremy said, not to be outdone.

"I don't know how fast I'll be able to get through it," he told his bandmates as he unwrapped another Chocopie.

"Then we should read it together!" the drummer suggested. "Bring it to the studio and we'll read it to each other during breaks. That way, we all know what's happening."

"And Reporter Park will be happy when she sees us reading her book," Tae-kyung added, nodding wisely. "Either that or she'll make us form a book club, but the point is that it will distract her and keep her in a good mood."

"I guess she's a fan of Genghis Khan," Shin-woo remarked.

"I think her mother is," Mi-nam told him. "Reporter Park told me that she was sort of named after his mother."

Jeremy's eyes widened. "No wonder she's so scary!"

The keyboardist thought about the writer again. He thought about her boring black clothes and thick glasses, perpetual bad hair and unfeminine, strictly-business manner. Then he thought about her hands and how her face had lit up as she talked to him about her favorite books, and once again about that pouty rosebud mouth. "Actually," he said, "she's not so bad."


	7. Smooth Operator

**Disclaimer:** The AN JELL-verse belongs to the Hong sisters, creators of _You're_ _Beautiful_.

**Author's Notes:** Thanks to Buru-beri-chan, KAZU (dot) BOU and spicegirls08 for the reviews! (SG08, I had been a bit concerned about the pacing in this story, too, but I hope this chapter is satisfactory :) )

_

* * *

Chapter Seven — Smooth Operator (Sade)_

_Get a hold of yourself, Park Oh-lan,_ she told herself firmly._ This outfit isn't very different from the others you've worn to work. The only new thing you're wearing is the shirt!_

She had had all of the Chuseok break to _blend_ her new things into her existing wardrobe, as Stylist Wang had ordered, and to work up the courage to actually wear them in public, but she still couldn't help feeling nervous as she walked down the hall to the _Inside Showbiz_ offices wearing one of her new blouses. There was nothing seriously wrong with it — it was perfectly appropriate for office wear, but Oh-lan was not used to wearing such bold patterns.

It seemed, however, that Stylist Wang was truly good at her job, and Oh-lan's new look was going to be well-received, judging from the double thumbs-up that she received from In-jung when she walked into the writing department. "Looking good, noona!" he told her.

The photographer had apparently been discussing work with one of the other reporters, Woo Jung-ah, who gave Oh-lan a broad grin. "Reporter Park, you're blooming! What's the occasion? Do you have a hot date after work?" she asked with an exaggerated wink.

Oh-lan laughed self-consciously. "No," she admitted. "I just felt like trying out a new look, that's all."

"Well, it's about time!"

"Why is this such a surprise to everyone?" Soon-ok's drawl broke in, just before he himself emerged from the pantry with a mug of coffee. "Of course Reporter Park would change her style. After all, she's a big-time writer now and she must dress the part."

There was nothing wrong with what he said; rather, it was the way he said it. His tone implied that Oh-lan had become arrogant due to her being recommended for the AN JELL book project, and was rubbing it in everyone else's faces. To add insult to injury, the expression on his face as he looked at her said plainly that he didn't think that the new style was becoming.

Resisting the temptation to trip Soon-ok as he stalked by her desk, Oh-lan focused instead on maintaining her composure. Stylist Wang was a professional; on the other hand, what did _he_ know about women's clothes? Furthermore, the others seemed to like it.

"As I was saying," Jung-ah said when Soon-ok had gone, "it's about time you got a new look. I always felt that you were hiding yourself under the things you used to wear. You know the old proverb..." The older woman's voice trailed off.

"What old proverb?" Oh-lan asked.

_"If you've got it, flaunt it!"_

She laughed in spite of herself. "Well, I'm glad some people think I've 'got it.'"

In-jung snorted. "Don't pay any attention to Reporter Kim, noona."

"Yeah," Jung-ah chimed in, snickering. "Maybe he just wishes that he looked half as good in a skirt as you do."

* * *

Oh-lan breathed a great sigh of relief when she finally returned home after work that day, and was able to change into a comfortable, threadbare T-shirt and sweatpants. The feedback on her new look had been good (if she wasn't mistaken, a couple of guys might have even checked her out on the subway ride home), but it was still a strain to pretend that she was perfectly comfortable with the new style, and keep her composure in the face of Soon-ok's disdainful attitude and thinly veiled insults.

She had just flopped down on her sofa with a book, a mug of tea and Genghis when her phone rang. She frowned in confusion when she saw the name of the incoming caller, but picked up nevertheless. "Hello?"

"Hi, Reporter Park!" Go Mi-nam said cheerfully over the line. "How's it going? How was your Chuseok break?"

"Just fine, thank you," Oh-lan replied slowly, tucking her feet under her. "What can I do for you? Is there a problem with the book project?"

"What? Oh — no!" He chuckled. "I was just checking to make sure you're not working."

"Well... I'm speaking with you right now," she told him, perplexed. "Does that count as working?"

"I'm not calling you as a client."

Silence fell on the other end of the line. For a moment, Mi-nam feared that Oh-lan was going to snap at him for wasting her time, so he was relieved to hear amusement in her voice when she spoke again. "I suppose you're calling me as someone who thinks I'm working too hard?"

He grinned. "That's right. So, are you working right now?"

"Actually, I'm not. My cat and I were just about to do a little reading when you called."

"That's good. Me, too," he told her.

"You have a cat?"

"No," Mi-nam answered, chuckling. "But I _am_ about to start the second book that you recommended."

"Really? ...What happened to the first one?" she asked suspiciously.

"I finished it, of course!" he told her, sitting bolt upright in indignation. "I'm hurt, Reporter Park."

She laughed. "I was just making sure. How did you like it?"

"I liked it a lot," he admitted. "You're right about those kinds of books being easier to read, since they're shorter and the stories are simpler. This one was really funny, too." That had made it even easier to follow; that and the fact that the group of boys who were the lead characters in the book sort of reminded him of himself and his bandmates, and their misadventures of the crazy things that AN JELL did together. Maybe he would even try to convince them to read it, even if they still thought it was a baby book.

"It was, wasn't it? That author writes a lot of funny stories. You should read more of his work."

"Maybe I will," he said. He couldn't promise anything, and he didn't even understand why getting him to read more was so important, but he would definitely try.

As they chatted some more, Mi-nam happened to glance at the picture of his mother. That night, there was a bit of mischief in her smile. _I hope you know what you're getting yourself into,_ her expression seemed to say.

He made a face at her, glad that he was alone in his room and no one could see him doing something so silly. He was calling Oh-lan to keep her in a good mood and prevent her from prying into AN JELL's private affairs. Of course he knew what he was doing.

* * *

"Reporter Park! Good morning!"

"Good morning," Oh-lan replied on her way inside the AN Entertainment offices. She couldn't help smiling as she returned the security guard's greeting, for the surprise in his voice was vastly amusing. Was her new look really that big of a change?

"Oh, Reporter Park!" a staffer exclaimed as they passed each other in the halls on the way to Oh-lan's office. "I almost didn't recognize you!"

All right, she amended, perhaps it _was_ a pretty major change.

Not surprisingly, Stylist Wang was thrilled to bits at the sight of her. "You look amazing!" she squealed, her stiletto heels drumming happily on the floor as she did a little dance. "That pink is doing _wonders _for your complexion. See what going lighter and brighter, and wearing clothes that actually fit, can do for you? But you like it, right?" she demanded. "Do you feel comfortable?"

"Not completely," Oh-lan admitted. "I mean, they feel fine, not too tight or anything, but they're not styles that I'm used to. I do like them, though," she added emphatically, "and I think they look good on me, so I'm going to try and wear things like this more often."

"I'd better see more at the charity bash this weekend! You're coming, right?"

She nodded. "I need to observe AN JELL for the book, and also to cover the event for _Inside Showbiz_."

Stylist Wang squealed again, loud enough to alarm people passing by, including Mi-nam. "Hey, what's up, Coordi-noona?" he asked, one eyebrow arched quizzically. "Are you feeling all right?"

"I'm fine!" she told him. "I'm just so happy over how good Reporter Park looks! Doesn't she look darling in her new outfit, Go Mi-nam?"

Oh-lan found herself holding her breath as the young man inspected her (much too closely, it seemed), and let it out when he gave an appreciative nod. "She looks lovely," he agreed, sounding gratifyingly sincere. "Is this your doing, noona?"

"Naturally," the stylist confirmed, patting her hair, which was in some kind of complicated towering arrangement that day. "But my magic only goes so far — the rest lies in how well the person carries off my style recommendations."

"Well, I think Reporter Park carries them off _very_ well."

Oh-lan had to laugh at that. It seemed that moving as though she were ready to pick a fight with anyone who made the mistake of insulting her new look was the right thing to do. "You're both too kind, and I wish I could stay here and soak up more compliments, but I have a lot of writing to do today."

Mi-nam grinned and winked at her. "If you ever need any more compliments, you just come look for me."

"Don't let Mi-nam rattle you," Stylist Wang advised when he had bid the ladies good day and ambled on down the corridor. "Sometimes he can be over-the-top when talking to girls."

"I can tell," Oh-lan answered with another short laugh.

"He really meant what he said, though, about you looking good," she added, as though afraid that Oh-lan might change her mind about continuing to wear her new clothes. "I'm a pro, so I know what I'm doing."

"I know that you do," she assured the taller woman with a smile. "And thank you very much again. I don't think I would have been able to change my style like this without your help."

By the time she finally got to her office, Oh-lan's cheeks were as pink as her little cardigan sweater (and the matching ring on her hand). She hadn't worn this outfit to AN Entertainment today to get anyone's attention, she told herself firmly as she plugged in her laptop and booted it up. She had worn it for herself, because she thought it was pretty and a nice change from her usual style. Black went with everything, especially more black, but it could get pretty confining.

Nevertheless, hearing other people tell her how good she looked had definitely felt very nice.

* * *

The "charity bash" to which Stylist Wang referred was veteran actor-singer Sung Bo-dae's annual birthday extravaganza, which also doubled as a fundraiser for a specially selected (often high-profile) charity. Invitations to the event were highly coveted, not only because it was a chance to rub shoulders with the glitterati of the entertainment and business circles, but for public figures it was also an opportunity to be seen as contributing to a charitable cause.

As Korea's top idol band, AN JELL was naturally on the guest list, and the boys were looking forward to it. "At least we don't have to wear any boring monkey suits," Jeremy said as they entered the function hall that was serving as the venue of the event. "And Bo-dae sunbae always throws a good party. I want to be just like him when I grow up."

"You'll have to grow up first," Mi-nam teased him.

Jeremy narrowed his eyes at his bandmate through the bangs arranged artistically to hang in his face, and as usual, Shin-woo stepped in to avert disaster. "Batgirl and Cookie Monster are already here," he said. (Mother Teresa, unfortunately, wasn't coming that night.)

Fortunately, that was enough to distract the blond boy. "Really?" He craned his neck to scan the crowd. "Yeah, I think I see Batgirl."

"We should probably go over to them and say hello, right?"

Jeremy nodded enthusiastically. "Definitely!"

"Divide and conquer — nice move," Tae-kyung murmured to Shin-woo as the guitarist started steering Jeremy away. Shin-woo gave him a conspiratorial wink.

"Did you say anything, brother-in-law?" Mi-nam asked, turning his attention from the pretty (and hopefully single) women in the room. He didn't want to do that, but if Tae-kyung was saying something important, he knew he had to hear it. For all his faults, Mi-nam took his belonging to AN JELL seriously.

"No," the vocalist assured him.

He grinned. "Well, since Shin-woo hyung and Jeremy have gone to mingle, I suppose I'll do the same. Would you excuse me?"

Mi-nam made his way to the crowded open bar, ordered a drink from the bartender and sidled up to one of the pretty young things he had been eyeing from afar. "Nice party, huh?" he said. The girl turned, and his smile faded. "Never mind."

"Why, hello there, Go Mi-nam," Yoo Heyi said with an acid-sweet smile on her petulantly pretty face.

"Turn back around, Heyi. The back of your head looks much better than the front."

"That's not what you said last year."

"I didn't know better then," he retorted, rolling his eyes. He had liked Heyi for a while, when he had first taken his place in AN JELL, but that had ended very quickly when she made him choose between her and his sister. That had been a very easy choice to make. Who needed a toxic girlfriend like that, especially when there were dozens of others out there who would know their place and understand that family came first?

Her smile turned into a scowl, and Mi-nam wished that there was a paparazzo nearby to capture "Korea's fairy" looking so ugly. "I still know your secret, you know," she threatened, referring of course to the fact that Mi-nyeo had posed as her brother for the first month following his AN JELL debut while Mi-nam recovered from plastic surgery. Mi-nam wasn't too clear on the details, but from the way the others had talked about her, he gathered that Heyi had held this over their heads for quite a while.

"Yeah, but is anyone going to believe you if you went public now? More than one year later, and after you laughed at that reporter who tried to strip me naked to prove I was a girl?" Mi-nam laughed in her face. "Face it, Heyi — you've lost, and you're not going to get anything out of me, my sister or my bandmates. Ever."

With a final smirk, he turned away from her, in time to see Oh-lan walk up to the bar and order a drink. He probably wouldn't have spared her a second (OK, maybe a third) glance if he hadn't spied Shin-woo, Jeremy and their girlfriends, semi- and otherwise, standing together not far behind her.

Mi-nam was at the writer's side in a flash. "Reporter Park! Fancy seeing you here!"

She blinked, startled, then recovered to give him a polite smile. "Oh, hello, Go Mi-nam."

"Can I buy you a drink?"

A slender eyebrow rose above the top of her eyeglasses. (She was dressing much better these days, he thought, but the woman obviously had yet to hear of contact lenses.) "They're free."

"Makes it easier to treat you, then," he said with a grin.

Oh-lan laughed. "I suppose it does."

"How are you liking the party?"

"It's pretty cool," she answered, glancing around. "Of course, I'm not here as a guest but a member of the media, but that doesn't mean I can't enjoy the perks." The bartender brought her her drink, and she raised her glass to Mi-nam. "Like free drinks.

"So are you here on business or pleasure?" she asked him then.

"A little of both!" he answered, taking her arm. "Hey, Reporter Park, you don't want to stand around all night, do you? Why don't we sit down?"

Oh-lan was surprised when Mi-nam took her arm, but didn't protest when she saw that he was merely guiding her towards one of the seating areas set up for the guests' comfort. She couldn't help thinking that it was rather nice of him to do that... and to want to sit with her as well.

They nabbed an empty table and sat down. "What do you mean, a little of both?" she asked, sitting primly with her glass in her lap even though he had taken another seat instead of sharing her short bench.

"Of course, being seen here is good for AN JELL's image," Mi-nam explained. "But besides that, Bo-dae sunbae is a respected member of the showbiz community and his parties are lots of fun. We would be happy to come even if it's not a high-profile affair." He paused, and then gave her a penetrating look. "Hey, you're not interviewing me right now, are you?"

"Well, I _am_ partly here to get more material for the book," she admitted with a smile, "but don't worry, I'm not going to grill you, or any of the others for that matter. I'm happy just to observe."

"Good," Mi-nam said. "I mean, I'd be happy to answer your questions, but this is a party and you should enjoy it even if you're here as part of the media. You shouldn't—"

"—work too hard," they chorused, Oh-lan rolling her eyes as she spoke.

He grinned at her. "You learn fast."

* * *

They chatted amiably for a while until Mi-nam saw his bandmates and their girlfriends moving towards the area where he sat with the writer. He shot Shin-woo and Jeremy a glare. Were they being guided by an evil spirit? Or following him around on purpose, just to spite him?

Unfortunately, Oh-lan didn't miss the expression that crossed his face. "Is everything all right?" she asked, sounding concerned.

"Yeah, everything's fine!" he assured her hastily. "I-it's just that this is one of my favorite songs... and I really should be dancing to it! Would you like to dance?"

She looked startled. "What?"

"Would you like to dance?" he repeated.

"I'm supposed to be observing!" she blurted out.

Mi-nam shook his head and grabbed the writer's arm, hauling her to her feet. "Sometimes you shouldn't just observe," he told her as he began towing her towards the dance floor, "but be part of the action."

He hustled her quickly past his bandmates, who watched their progress with interest. "Was that the writer you guys mentioned before?" Su-jin asked.

Shin-woo nodded. "Mi-nam probably saw us coming and tried to keep her from seeing you with us."

"No wonder he was giving you two a dirty look just a while ago," Ha-neul observed. "He was trying to warn you away from here."

"He should have sent us a text message," Jeremy snickered.

Su-jin smacked his arm. "That's mean! And to think he was trying to help you!"

"Well, you have to admit he looked kind of funny scrambling around like that!" The drummer scowled. "And why are you standing up for him? Are you his girlfriend now?"

"Mi-nam is doing us a favor," Shin-woo reminded them. "Do you really want to undo all his hard work by fighting in public?"

"This is probably a good time for all of us to split up again," Ha-neul suggested, taking Su-jin's arm. "There's an executive that Appa says I need to talk to, anyway. The executive is a woman," she added when Shin-woo's eyes narrowed playfully.

Her boyfriend grinned, mollified. "That's fine, then. We'll see you girls later. Come on, Jeremy."

* * *

Out on the dance floor, Oh-lan moved hesitantly to the music, feeling awkward. "It's been a long time since I danced," she explained, although the main reason why she was feeling this way was the guy right across from her. She was sure that he wasn't going to laugh at her or anything, but he was a professional and she still couldn't help feeling self-conscious about dancing in front of him.

"It's just like riding a bike," Mi-nam told her. "You never really forget how!" He grabbed her hand and twirled her around.

A laugh burst out of her as she spun, colored lights speeding dizzily by, and in the space of a heartbeat, a different person faced him.

Oh-lan raised her arms and moved more freely as the music stole through the soles of her feet and up into the rest of her body. After years of not having the chance, not having the time, to dance, this felt like the first rays of spring sunshine. Soon, she was consumed by the dance.

Mi-nam watched her from across the breath of space that separated them. It was hard to believe that this was same woman — instead of a nun, a fairy princess stood before him. A fairy princess in a black leather jacket who smelled like little white flowers and moved as though her feet had wings. One who waved her arms as though casting a spell so that she could dance forever. One who arched her neck and pouted, inviting any brave soul to break the trance with true love's kiss.

Perhaps he was the one in the trance...

He leaned towards her only to have something hit him in the face, jolting him back to reality. "Omo!" Oh-lan exclaimed. "I'm so sorry! Are you hurt?"

"I'm fine," Mi-nam replied, rubbing his cheek and trying to sound natural even as he tried to come to grips with what he had almost done. "I barely got hit. What happened?"

"My glasses." Laughing, she bent down to pick up something from the floor. "I was moving so much that they fell off!"

"Oh." He watched her inspect them for damage. "Are they broken?"

"No, they're OK, but I think I'll put them away for now." She put them into the small, slim purse tucked under her arm and smiled at him, her eyes shining like stars even in the dim light of the dance floor. "I don't need to see while I'm dancing, anyway!"

* * *

The next day, Mi-nam's bandmates congratulated him on his excellent job of running interference. "Thanks to you, Mi-nam," Jeremy said as AN JELL took a break from recording, "I got some important quality time with Cookie Monster!"

"Did she finally agree to take you back?" asked Shin-woo, with a smile that said that he already knew the answer to the question.

"No, but I think I made progress!"

Tae-kyung put down his water bottle and snickered. "I guess that's better than nothing," he said. "But seriously, Mi-nam, I must thank you, too, for distracting Reporter Park. I didn't have to hide _my _girlfriend last night, but it was nice not feeling like she was looking over my shoulder."

Mi-nam acknowledged the thanks with a kingly wave of his hand. "You're very welcome, brother-in-law. Remember this moment the next time I ask you to do something for me, OK?"

"It wasn't difficult for you, was it?" Shin-woo asked him. "I mean, you gave up practically your whole evening just so the rest of us could enjoy ourselves."

The keyboardist thought about the way Oh-lan had looked on the dance floor: slender arms raised, long lashes fanning darkly against her cheeks, kittenish pout flashing red, blue and yellow under the lights.

"No," he said finally. "It was fine."

Suddenly, there was a loud bang. The boys looked up, startled, to see the door leading into the studio bouncing off the wall.

The writer stood in the open doorway. Judging from the stunned look on her face, she had heard everything they said.


	8. Gives You Hell

**Disclaimer:** The AN JELL-verse belongs to the Hong sisters, creators of _You're_ _Beautiful_.

**Author's Notes:** Thanks, as always, to Buru-beri-chan and KAZU (dot) BOU for the reviews. I really appreciate the support :) Happy holidays, everyone!

_

* * *

Chapter Eight — Gives You Hell (All-American Rejects)_

It took a few days before Oh-lan agreed to see, let alone speak, to the band, and when she did, Mi-nam saw that the nun from their first meeting was back.

The writer folded her arms and glared at them over the rims of her glasses. That, her severe black clothing and the fact that the members of AN JELL sat in a row in her office like guilty schoolboys all reminded Mi-nam of Sister May back at the orphanage. All of the kids had been afraid of her because she was so strict.

"I don't know who you think you're dealing with," she began, "but I am a professional. I was hired to write about your creative process and how you work together as a band." She looked pointedly at Tae-kyung, who had the grace to look slightly embarrassed. "I'm sorry if some of you feel that's intrusive, but if there's one thing I can promise you, it's that whatever you feel should be off the record _stays_ off the record. It's true that I'm still working for _Inside Showbiz _even while working on this project, but I'm not stupid enough to put this job in jeopardy just for a scoop.

"And furthermore," Oh-lan went on, "even though I will admit that you guys having girlfriends _is_ a scoop, I'll have you know that I don't write that sort of thing for the magazine." She looked down her nose at Mi-nam, who tried his best to meet her gaze but wound up looking away first. "Those of you who claim to be fans of my work would know that. Do I make myself clear?"

All of the boys nodded, but only Shin-woo had the courage to speak. "We're sorry, Reporter Park," he said humbly. "Please understand that we want to be cooperative like President Ahn wants, but there are also people that we have to protect. We've never worked closely with any writers before, so we couldn't think of anything else to do to protect those people we care about."

He probably said the right things, because instead of lecturing some more, the writer just nodded. "I hope that, the next time something like this comes up," she told them, sounding calmer now, "you'll be able to talk to me about it. I don't need details if you don't want to go into them, but I should at least know what topics are off-limits. Does that sound fair to you?"

AN JELL looked at each other and nodded. "We can do that," Tae-kyung said.

"Good." Oh-lan sighed and leaned against the wall behind her, as though the discussion had tired her out. "I suppose that's all I really wanted to say, and all I needed to know."

"We should probably get back to work, then," Jeremy suggested, trying not to sound too eager to get out of there.

"I need to do the same," she agreed.

The drummer was clearly eager to get out of there, but there was one thing he needed to ask before leaving. "Are we all friends again, noona?"

"Yes, we are," she assured him. "Don't worry about it, Jeremy."

She mustered a smile at Jeremy's question, but apart from that cold stare earlier, Mi-nam noticed that the writer didn't look at him once during the whole meeting.

* * *

When Oh-lan returned home that night, she found that her anger, which had allowed her to go through the past few days with her head held high, had burned itself out. All she was now was very, very tired.

She kicked off her shoes and sagged bonelessly onto her sofa. The motion startled Genghis, who had been napping among the cushions, and he leapt away, hissing. Normally, she would have apologized for giving him such a shock, but she paid him no heed this time, having other things on her mind.

_Stupid._ She scrubbed her face with her hands as if to rub off the humiliation that had been threatening to smother her ever since she had overheard AN JELL congratulating Go Mi-nam in the recording studio. _Stupid, stupid, stupid._

Just when she thought that she was making progress and earning the band's trust, if not their friendship... She could see something special when they allowed themselves to relax in her presence, a brotherhood that made them more than just a band that worked together.

_Perhaps they had just been pretending that as well,_ she thought meanly, even though in her heart she knew that wasn't true.

What she _did_ know for sure was that she should have wondered why Mi-nam had suddenly started acting so friendly. For someone who prided herself on her intelligence, where was her brain? Instead of protecting herself as she should have, all she could think of was how nice it was to have someone besides her parents, especially someone so charming and good-looking, to care about her well-being, and make sure she was actually living her life instead of just working all the time. To discover that it had all been an act was crushing.

Oh-lan's eyes began to sting and she shook her head with determination. By now, Genghis seemed to have realized that his mistress was very upset and he padded back to her side, mewing. Rather than demanding the apology that was his due, he climbed onto her lap, his weight warm and reassuring.

Laughing shakily, she cradled him in her arms and he licked her cheek. "You're right," she said. "This is nothing to cry about." Rather, it was a lesson that in this life, a person could really only rely on herself. From now on, she would remember that guys like Go Mi-nam didn't get close to girls like her.

* * *

Despite her resolution to get over it and move on, all of this still weighed heavily on Oh-lan's mind when she had dinner at her parents' house the next evening. They were having beef and vegetable stew that night, but she just listlessly picked at her food.

This naturally did not escape her mother's attention. "Is something wrong with the stew?" asked Professor Han, frowning and prodding at the food left in the serving bowl.

"No, it's fine." She ate a spoonful of meat and rice without tasting anything.

"Normally we can't keep you away from it," her father observed, looking concerned. "Are you sick? Did Genghis scratch you? Professor Lee from the College of Natural Science was telling me the other day about this thing called cat scratch fever, where—"

Oh-lan laughed despite herself and shook her head. "I'm fine, Appa," she assured him. "I just have a lot on my mind."

"You're working too hard," her mother told her. "I think you've lost weight since the last time we saw you. Are you eating and sleeping properly?"

"I swear that I am." As she spoke, she remembered the last person who had worried about her this way and hoped that she wasn't blushing. "It's just that... I'm a little blocked in my writing and it's bothering me. I'm trying to relax and let it pass, but it's been hard."

She had said that last part because she knew her parents were going to fret that she wasn't relaxing enough, but that night, she wasn't completely prepared for everything they were going to say.

After a little prodding from his wife, Professor Park spoke up. "Well, you know, relaxing isn't just about staying home and taking a rest from work," he ventured. "It might involve actually going out, having fun and meeting new people. Take, for instance, one of my junior colleagues at the university, Professor Chin Tae-mul. A very nice young man..."

Oh-lan frowned at her father over a small mouthful of beansprouts. "What about him? Is he an example of another person who needs to go out and have fun, or of a new person that I should meet?"

"Both, actually," Professor Han said, cutting right to the chase. Seeing her daughter stiffen, she hastened to add, "Now, Oh-lan, you know that your father and I don't believe in matchmaking, so this wouldn't be _that_ kind of date. It's just an opportunity for you to make a new friend your age, that's all."

"Does _he_ know that?" she asked suspiciously.

"Not yet," Professor Park told her. "But that's because I haven't even approached Professor Chin yet about meeting you. Your mother and I agreed that we would check with you first before setting up anything."

"At least you got that right," Oh-lan grumbled.

"Would you agree to meet Professor Chin?" her mother asked then. "Even just once?"

She fell silent. On the one hand, she did not like to idea of going out with anyone hand-picked by her parents, for whatever reason. It made her feel as though she couldn't freely choose the men with whom she could associate. (All right, she currently wasn't meeting any likely prospects on her own, but that was beside the point!) On the other hand, what was wrong with making a new friend, as her mother said? At least, this time, she would be sure that the guy was meeting her because he was genuinely interested.

"All right," Oh-lan said finally, "I'll do it."

* * *

While the Park family spoke of dates around the dinner table, Mi-nam actually went on one. Her name was Seon-hwa and, if he remembered correctly, she was an aspiring actress or something like that.

Of course, it was all supposed to be completely hush-hush, so instead of picking her up (not that he ever did that with any of his dates), Mi-nam met her at an upscale club in the Yongsan district. As an added precaution, he was disguised in a hat and false mustache.

He caught sight of her sitting alone at the bar, a tall girl in a silver minidress that showed off her slender figure. She had changed her hair since the last time he had seen her; tonight, it was a bold pumpkin orange, almost the same as the new hair color Jeremy had adopted the day before. Everything about her was calculated to catch the eye, and judging from the interested looks she was receiving from the men flocked around her, it was working.

To her credit, Seon-hwa kept the wolves at bay instead of capitalizing on the attention. Mi-nam couldn't help puffing up proudly as he claimed the empty seat next to her. "Sorry I'm late, gorgeous," he told her, enjoying the envious stares of his date's admirers. "Have you been waiting long?"

She had known that he would be disguised (Mi-nam wasn't _that_ bad with details) and he supposed that she recognized his voice, because rather than rebuff his attentions, she showered him with a dazzling smile. "Not at all," she assured him. "Just long enough to build the anticipation."

Mi-nam grinned and tossed some money onto the counter to pay for the drink in Seon-hwa's well-manicured hand. "Well, the wait is over. Why don't we adjourn to someplace more private?"

They followed a hostess to the VIP room that Mi-nam had booked (under an alias, of course) for the evening. "Everything is ready, just as you requested, sir," the hostess told him, fluttering her eyelashes. "Call me if you need anything else."

"I will. Thank you." He couldn't help noticing that the hostess, too, was very pretty, but there wasn't much he could do about that... at least, not while he was on a date with someone else.

"Who's Ong Bae-gu?" Seon-hwa asked when they were alone.

He chuckled. "No one. It's just an alias I use for these things, to protect my privacy." Shin-woo and Jeremy used it, too, when making restaurant reservations or ordering gifts for their girlfriends. Sometimes, Mi-nam wondered whether florists and maȋtre d's all over town thought that Ong Bae-gu was the Don Juan of Seoul.

She giggled and snuggled deeper into the plush leather banquette. "This is all so mysterious! Like I'm in a spy movie or something. I'd better remember this for when I audition for a role in an action movie."

(_I guess I was right about her being an aspiring actress,_ Mi-nam thought.)

"If it wasn't so exciting," Seon-hwa went on, "I'd feel bad about not being able to let the whole world know that we're dating."

He closed his eyes to hide the fact that he was rolling them. "I've already explained it to you, Seon-hwa, and I hoped that you would understand that it would be best to keep this quiet for a while."

"Are you ashamed of me?" she asked, pouting prettily. The gesture displayed her plum-lipsticked mouth to the best advantage, but Mi-nam found himself thinking of another mouth, this one bare of any cosmetics. That mouth... and frizzy hair... and eyeglasses... and eyes that mirrored a world of hurt.

_Don't think about her. _

"Of course not," he soothed Seon-hwa. "I like you a lot, but you know how fans can be like if they ever found out that a member of AN JELL was dating. It'll affect my bandmates, too, not just me. This isn't a decision that I can make lightly."

"Doesn't Hwang Tae-kyung have a girlfriend?"

This girl had come prepared, but then, so had Mi-nam. "He does, but he thought long and hard before deciding to go public. I guess he was also lucky, because he had just broken up with Yoo Heyi and the fans felt kind of sorry for him."

Seon-hwa made an impatient noise. "It's not fair. You're a top star. You should be able to do what you want."

"I wish I could, but that's not the way things work. I'm doing this for you, too, you know," he added. "The fans won't just go after me; they'll go after you, too. You wouldn't want to be involved in a scandal like that, would you?"

She thought about it for several moments. "I guess not," she said finally, even though Mi-nam got the feeling that she actually did. Even though the scandal would land her quite a few anti-fans, such a thing would probably be very good for her acting career.

She sighed and twined her arms around his. "You're so sweet, Mi-nam. I love that you're already protecting me like this."

Mi-nam accepted the kiss that she gave him before turning away and pouring himself some wine. He'd had a lot of practice having that kind of discussion — maybe not with Seon-hwa herself, because this was just their first date, but with quite a few of the other girls he had dated in the past.

However, those other girls had waited until the second or third date, or at least well into the evening of their first date, before bringing up the issue of going public.

* * *

"I see we're back in black."

Stifling a snarl, Oh-lan looked up from the article that she was finishing on Sung Bo-dae's birthday celebration. Recent events had made it difficult to write, and so now, she was spending her lunch break at the _Inside Showbiz_ offices, rushing to meet the deadline. "May I help you, Reporter Kim?" she asked him politely.

Soon-ok looked down his nose at her, an annoyingly superior smile on his face. "I couldn't help noticing that you've reverted to your old wardrobe. Such a shame..." he drawled. "Just as I was getting used to your trendy new look."

She wished she was wearing her combat boots instead of flat shoes; that way, she wouldn't have had any qualms about kicking him. "I'm sorry you have to look at these old clothes again," Oh-lan replied sweetly, "but I'm dressing for comfort these days. I'm mostly done with my research for the AN JELL project, and I need to buckle down and start writing the actual book."

It turned out that mentioning the book was just as good as kicking Soon-ok. He glowered at the reminder of the project for which he had not been recommended. "Forgive me for interrupting your oh-so-very-important work, Reporter Park," he said, even though his tone indicated that he wasn't sorry at all. "I suppose I'll let you get back to it, then."

"Was he bothering you again, noona?" In-jung asked, approaching Oh-lan's desk after the senior reporter had stalked off.

"He was trying," she replied.

"Maybe you should complain to your uncle—I mean, Editor Park," the photographer suggested in a low voice. "Reporter Kim's sort of on your case all the time now."

She gave a brief shake of her head. "He's not worth my time. Now, if you'll excuse me, In-jung, I have to finish this within the hour."

Oh-lan was not using her own computer, and even if she were, she knew better than to bang on the keys, so typing out the rest of her article did little to vent her frustration. At least, she consoled herself after she had sent off the finished piece, she managed to meet her deadline despite certain petty distractions, and now she was on her way to her own private office, where she could be alone and focus on the project that could make her career, and maybe blast some music to help make her feel better.

* * *

As luck would have it, the first people whom Oh-lan saw at AN Entertainment was AN JELL. It was the first time they all saw each other since the day she had chewed them out in her office. "Hi, noona!" Shin-woo greeted her politely. "Coming back from lunch?"

She shook her head. "I had to finish an article for _Inside Showbiz_. Now I need to start seriously writing your book."

"You haven't eaten anything at all?" Jeremy screeched. His hair, she noticed, had gone from blond to bright orange. He looked like his head was on fire.

"I'll get something later," she assured him.

"Where?"

"There's a cafeteria in this building, isn't there?" Oh-lan snapped, then fought to curb her temper. The drummer was a bit of a health nut, she reminded herself, and would thus be concerned about proper nutrition. Besides, it wouldn't be fair to inflict her bad mood on people who weren't directly responsible for it.

"I'm sorry, guys," she went on in a calmer tone. "I truly appreciate your concern and wish I could stay and chat, but I have a lot to do today. Excuse me."

"Did you see the look on her face when she saw us?" Tae-kyung observed when she had gone. "I think you seriously pissed off the writer, Mi-nam."

_"Me?"_ he retorted. "Who was it who made me get close to her in the first place?"

"I think you turned on the charm a bit too much in this case," Jeremy reflected, gazing at the ceiling. "Instead of just making friends, I think you made her fall in love with you, so now she's doing the whole 'woman scorned' thing."

Mi-nam snorted derisively and flung off the arm that the now-redheaded boy had draped over his shoulders. "Hey, I was just carrying out all of _your_ instructions," he told his bandmates. "I can't help it if I'm irresistible to women."

He gave them one last smirk before stalking off, hoping that his face wasn't as red as it felt.

* * *

Mi-nam's irritation wasn't just because his bandmates had the nerve to make joking remarks at his expense, but also because they were probably right... at least about him pissing off Reporter Park. (He wasn't quite ready to think about her possibly being in love with him.)

It was thus for that reason that he knocked on her office door half an hour later, bearing the best that the AN Entertainment cafeteria had to offer.

"Come in," came her voice from inside, sounding very much like Mother Superior after finding out that all the cookies that the sisters had baked for dessert that night had bites taken out of them. He still wasn't quite sure how the nun found out that he had done it.

Mi-nam opened the door and stuck his head inside cautiously. "I was just checking to see if you had already eaten lunch," he said. Oh-lan had looked up as the door opened and, to his dismay, a guarded look settled over her features when she saw that it was him.

"I've brought you some food," he went on, "just in case you haven't." His arm followed his head inside the office, holding out the bag of food like a flag of truce.

"I haven't eaten yet," she admitted. "Thank you. How much do I owe you?"

"Nothing. It's my treat." Deciding to risk it, Mi-nam went all the way into the office to put the food on her desk.

"Thank you," Oh-lan repeated, looking at the bag as it landed beside her pen holder. She adjusted her glasses and looked at him. "Is there anything else?"

"Oh, we've started reading that book on Genghis Khan that you recommended," he told her. "The others were interested, too, so we're reading it together."

He hoped that her face would light up the way it had when he took her to the book café, but all he got today was a thin, brief smile. "That's great. I hope you enjoy it."

"It's pretty good so far."

"It's the first book in a series. If you really like it, then you should buy the rest."

"We'll probably do that." Mi-nam stuck his hands in his pockets and shifted from foot to foot. "Look, I'm sorry... about everything," he went on, glancing at the floor.

She stiffened in her seat. "Forget about it," she told him flatly. "We've all talked about it and moved on. It's over."

"The two of us haven't talked about it yet. I was hoping I could at least tell you my side of things. Reporters are supposed to look at a story from all angles, aren't they?"

Oh-lan scowled and for a while he feared that she was going to throw him out of her office then, but Mi-nam supposed he was right, because she didn't. "All right," she said instead. "What is it?"

"I'm not going to deny that I started hanging out with you because the others asked me to," he began, "but I never pretended to enjoy your company. I really had fun talking to you and everything. You're smart and funny, and you love what you do, and I really, truly think that all of that is cool.

"I don't know if that helps make things better," he concluded, "because I know that out of everyone in the band, I hurt you pretty badly; but I wanted to make it clear that I wasn't just putting on an act when we were together."

She was quiet for a moment, but when she spoke, her voice was stony. "You needn't have worried; you didn't hurt me. I'll admit that it was a shock, but as I told you, it's over. You guys have admitted your mistake and apologized, and I've accepted your apology. I did tell Jeremy that we were all friends again, didn't I?"

"Yeah, but I didn't think we should all move on without clearing up my side of things first."

"Well, I appreciate your honesty."

They regarded each other in silence for a few moments. _That was it? _Mi-nam thought when Oh-lan said nothing more. Her face was expressionless, but he got the feeling that she was keeping silent on purpose, just to make him squirm.

"I'm glad you do," he said finally. He nodded at the still-untouched food on her desk and made a move to leave. "I suppose I'll let you get back to work, then. Don't forget to eat your lunch."

* * *

Mi-nam was glad when the band decided to stop recording early that day. The official reason was that Shin-woo and Jeremy were taping a TV guesting that evening; but the truth was that there had been no pleasing Tae-kyung during rehearsals and, to Mi-nam's relief and Jeremy's undying gratitude, Shin-woo suggested that everyone take off early that day. Mi-nam took advantage of the extra down time to pay Mi-nyeo a surprise visit at the orphanage, dragging Tae-kyung along with him.

Unlike other women who didn't need to be named, Mi-nam's sister was delighted to see them. "I'm glad you decided to come all of a sudden, oppa," she said when he and Tae-kyung arrived with treats for the kids. "A new boy arrived this week and he's having trouble adjusting to life at the orphanage. Maybe you could talk to him?"

Mi-nam laughed. He had been bent on getting out of the orphanage from the moment their aunt Mi-ja had left them there, but he couldn't resist it when Mi-nyeo asked him for a favor. "I'll try my best," he promised. "At least you're not asking me to clean gutters or change light bulbs like the last time I was here."

"Well, we do need the fallen leaves swept up," she answered innocently, "and Mr. Ha, the groundskeeper's, bad back has been bothering him lately..."

He made a face at his twin, but instead of getting mad, he grinned and clapped Tae-kyung on the back. "Boy, am I glad you decided to come along, brother-in-law."

Mi-nam had to admit that visiting the orphanage was good for his ego, because the kids were awed at the idea that a celebrity like him had lived there, just like them; but it kept him from getting a swelled head, too, especially when his sister and Mother Superior asked him (and anyone who decided to come along) to help with the chores.

"This wasn't what I had in mind when Shin-woo told me to relax," Tae-kyung said dryly as he wielded a rake over the grass, which was starting to turn brown in the cold weather.

"Now, brother-in-law, you mustn't complain," Mi-nam chided as he dumped a dustpan full of dried leaves into a waiting garbage bag. He nodded at the little groups of children around them, all of whom were busily raking and sweeping, eager to help the idols with the task. "You don't want these kids to think that you don't want to be here, do you?

"Besides," he added virtuously, "Mother Superior always said that hard work was good for the soul."

"I'm sure you heard that a lot because you got punished with chores so much," the vocalist retorted.

Mi-nyeo stopped raking to touch her boyfriend's arm gently. "You can sit down and rest if you like, oppa. I know that you were both working very hard before coming here."

Tae-kyung's expression softened as he looked at her and he resumed raking with renewed energy. "I'm not that tired," he said. "And with all of us working together, we'll be done in no time."

Mi-nam scooped up some more leaves to take to the garbage bag. "Did you get Mother Superior's permission to go to the foundation thing, Mi-nyeo?" he asked her.

His twin smiled and nodded. "She was happy to let me go, and told me to see if I could get ideas on how to improve the sports program for the children here. Maybe the foundation can sponsor a team or some equipment, or something."

"Maybe they could. Or maybe _we_ could," Mi-nam suggested. "Living at the orphanage was OK, but I'm sure I would have liked it here a lot more if I had more opportunities to run and jump around. AN JELL could give the orphanage some money to do that."

Tae-kyung nodded. "We'll suggest it to President Ahn."

Mi-nam found himself smiling. It was a small thing, and nothing was certain at that point, but the idea of helping the orphanage made him feel a lot better.


	9. Won't Get Fooled Again

**Disclaimer:** The AN JELL-verse belongs to the Hong sisters, creators of _You're_ _Beautiful_, and the Comeback Madonna Band to the creators of _I Am Legend_. Lee Min-ho belongs to my mom or my grandmother, depending on whom you ask :-p

**Technical Notes:** Please note that Ha-neul, Su-jin and Shin-woo are all the same age, and the Go twins are younger than them, therefore Mi-nyeo (ever the soul of propriety) calls the girls "unni."

**Author's Notes:** Happy New Year, everyone! Sorry about the interruption in updates, but of course there were the holidays and I went out of town for New Year. On the bright side, I had a lot of time to write and there's more of this fic to share with you :) Thanks, as always, to KAZU (dot) BOU for the review!

_

* * *

Chapter Nine — Won't Get Fooled Again (The Who)_

The Pan Chung-ae Memorial Children's Foundation launched its sports promotion campaign, called "Go For It!" after its official song, in the Gymnastics Arena in Seoul's Olympic Park.

Although it was an official function, with representatives from government, professional athletics and major media in attendance, there was a relaxed, informal atmosphere in keeping with the campaign's sports-centric, children-friendly theme. Pop music, including the campaign song, played over the sound system and provided a lively background to the various games, booths and demonstrations that encouraged everyone to get active and stay healthy. Ads featuring celebrities promoting different sports hung in colorful banners from the rafters and flashed in a slide show beamed onto the stage, and many of the celebrities in those ads were present in person that day. Lee Min-ho showed a group of young fans how to dribble a soccer ball, the members of the Comeback Madonna Band took their children around the booths, and AN JELL was on hand to take pictures and sign autographs, as well as perform at the program later.

"Do you see them yet?" Tae-kyung murmured as he scrawled his name on a program held up by a little girl with adoring eyes and a missing front tooth. "We need to go backstage soon."

"No," Shin-woo replied, "but I see Kim Byung-hyeon." Sure enough, the basketball hotshot was helping a little boy shoot free throws in one booth.

Jeremy made a face. "Not him again!"

The guitarist chuckled. "Yeah, I know. I'm going to have to cut him out of all of Batgirl's ads."

"Relax, I'm sure they'll be here," Mi-nam said. "And if they don't show up, there's still a perfectly legitimate reason for Mi-nyeo to be with us." He grinned at his twin. "Don't forget, brother-in-law, that she was my sister long before she became your girlfriend."

"I'm not worried about her being with us," Tae-kyung said. "I'm thinking about later, when we'll be onstage and she'll be left alone out here."

"I'll be fine, oppa," she assured him.

"Maybe Reporter Park can keep her company," Shin-woo suggested.

"She's here?" Mi-nam blurted out before he could stop himself.

"Yeah, I think so. That could be her over there, except she's not wearing black." The guitarist nodded towards a small figure in the distance. Although she was wearing a bright pink sweater and her hair tamed in a tight braid, the upright carriage and heavy-framed eyeglasses were unmistakable.

"Maybe she wore that so she wouldn't scare the kids," Jeremy snickered.

Mi-nam was about to tell him to shut up when Ha-neul, her father and Su-jin came into view, distracting them all. Ha-neul looked around for AN JELL and smiled when she spotted them, but couldn't do more than that because she and Su-jin were soon engulfed by a crowd of excited young women. "I take it that's the Beijing women's basketball team?" he remarked, chuckling as Mr. So retreated hastily in the face of the onslaught.

Shin-woo made an affirmative noise as he signed another autograph.

"Well, I guess that means we can forget about leaving Mi-nyeo with them," Tae-kyung said. "Mi-nam, you should ask Reporter Park to keep her company."

"Why me?" Mi-nam protested.

"She's your sister," Tae-kyung pointed out reasonably.

"Yeah, but—" He was about to retort that Mi-nyeo was the vocalist's girlfriend, which meant that _he_ should be the one to make the request, but managed to catch himself. The public knew that Tae-kyung was in a relationship, but he didn't need to go trumpeting it from the rooftops. "Do you really want _me_ to ask Reporter Park for a favor?" he asked instead.

"What are you talking about, oppa?" his sister wanted to know.

Neither Mi-nam nor Tae-kyung deigned to explain. Instead, the vocalist nodded. "Good point," he said. "I'll go. Come on, Mi-nyeo."

* * *

Oh-lan had not missed the commotion when the two girls arrived. She recognized the taller one as So Ha-neul and concluded that the gaggle of young women clustered around her were her teammates from the Beijing Olympics. They certainly seemed tall enough to be basketball players.

She was making a note of it when Hwang Tae-kyung strode up to her with a young woman in tow. "Reporter Park," he said without preamble, "I need to ask a favor from you."

"Really?" Oh-lan responded politely, noting that the pair was holding hands. "What is it?"

He gestured towards the girl at his side. "This is Go Mi-nyeo. She is Mi-nam's twin sister and my..." He looked uneasy for a moment, "...you know. Mi-nyeo, this is Reporter Park Oh-lan. She's the writer doing the book about us."

Mi-nyeo smiled sweetly and gave Oh-lan a polite bow. "Hello."

"Nice to meet you," she answered, bowing back. The other girl did bear a very strong resemblance to her brother. If her hair weren't so long and she wasn't carrying a handbag, she might have been mistaken for another "flower boy," one of those feminine-looking guys that were all the rage in showbusiness these days.

"Mi-nyeo is here because Mi-nam and I invited her to come," Tae-kyung went on once all the courtesies had been observed, "but the program will be starting soon and we'll have to leave her alone. I was hoping that she could hang out with you while we're onstage."

"It's OK if you're busy," Mi-nyeo added earnestly. "I don't mind being by myself for a while."

"It's all right," Oh-lan told her. "I'm writing about the event, so I'll need to pay attention to things, but you're welcome to stay if you like."

"Thank you," Tae-kyung said, looking tremendously relieved. "This means a lot."

"I promise I won't be a bother," Mi-nyeo added. Her boyfriend murmured something that caused her to make a face and give his shoulder a gentle smack, nodded to Oh-lan and took his leave.

The two girls stood together in silence for a while after he had gone. "So... what is it you do?" Oh-lan asked finally. There were some last-minute preparations still being made onstage, so she didn't have to pay attention to it just yet.

"I teach at an orphanage," Mi-nyeo answered. "The same one where my oppa and I grew up."

She hadn't known that Mi-nam grew up in an orphanage and was tempted to find out more, but decided to resist that temptation. If there was one person she didn't want to talk or even think about, it was him. "That's very cool," she said instead. "Both my parents are teachers, so I know how difficult and important your work is."

"Thank you. It can be hard, but working with kids is fun, too. They're actually another reason why I'm here," the other girl added. "My oppas invited me, but I also wanted to come because the event is about getting more kids to play sports. I thought that maybe I could get some ideas or help for the orphanage."

Oh-lan nodded. "Well, I'll need to interview some of the people from the foundation later, after the program. If you like," she offered impulsively, "you can come along and we'll try to find someone who can help you." Mi-nyeo definitely deserved some help, and they might as well put their time together to good use.

Mi-nyeo smiled. "I'd like that."

Just then, a young woman came out onstage and, taking the microphone, introduced herself as Rhee Kyung-soon, the campaign coordinator and MC for that afternoon. Her brief remarks on the concept of the campaign were followed by speeches from the head of the foundation and a representative from the Ministry of Health and Welfare. (Fortunately, both of the speakers knew well enough to keep their remarks brief, in order to avoid boring the children.)

Coordinator Rhee then thanked everyone who had contributed to the campaign, concluding by calling those who had appeared in the advertisements onstage. The audience applauded enthusiastically as the celebrities were introduced one by one, but So Ha-neul received arguably the most fanfare thanks to her teammates, who cheered loudly when her name was called, and demanded high-fives before they let her through to the stage.

* * *

"You're all crazy!" Ha-neul said, shaking her head, but she walked through the group anyway, giggling and slapping high-fives left and right.

"So are you!" Su-jin laughed as her friend finally finished with everyone and made her way onstage, where Kyung-soon, not to be left out, held up a hand for a high-five as well.

Su-jin knew that everyone was looking at them, but she didn't care. These girls were more than just her teammates, after all; they were her sisters. They had all been there for each other in both good and bad times, offering support when someone was sick or injured as often as they celebrated (loudly) during moments of triumph. Maybe people thought they were making a big deal out of nothing because Ha-neul wasn't as famous as the others standing on that stage, but if they experienced what their team had gone through on that long road to Beijing, then they would understand.

There was more cheering and clapping from the girls as Ha-neul and Kyung-soon left the stage and rejoined the group. The short program was going to end with AN JELL's performance of the official campaign song, and everyone needed to get off the stage so that the instruments could be set up.

"Congratulations, _Coordinator Rhee_," Su-jin greeted her older teammate, smiling teasingly as she used her official title. "This looks like it's going to be another huge success!"

"I have all of you to thank for that," Kyung-soon replied, smiling at everyone. "It's your support that makes my projects successful."

There were _awwww_s all around in reply to the compliment. "Well, _I'm_ really happy to be here, unni," said Yang Hye-yun, the youngest member of the team. "After all, where else can I get the chance to have my picture taken with Lee Min-ho?"

"Is he all you came here for?" Kyung-soon scolded playfully.

"But he's _soooo_ hot," someone sighed, raising a fluttering hand to her heart.

"Don't let your husband hear you say that," Jo Sun-mi, one of the co-captains, reminded her.

"He won't know if you don't tell him!"

"Hey, Hye-yun," an older girl said, "if you claim Lee Min-ho, you're not leaving much out there for the rest of us who are still looking. You can have him on even-numbered days of the month if I can have him on all the other days."

"Sorry, unni, but he's all mine," she bantered back. "You're going to have to pick from the other guys out there."

"There's one more guy you probably can't have," Kyung-soon interrupted slyly. "At least, not over Ha-neul's dead body."

Su-jin gasped, and beside her, she felt Ha-neul tense. Had the older girl somehow found out about Shin-woo? "Who in the world are you talking about, unni?" her friend asked, trying to sound casual.

"Kim Byung-hyeon, of course!" the older girl answered, nudging her and waggling her eyebrows meaningfully. "Don't deny it — I could tell there was a love connection between you two as early as that charity game!"

"Oh!" Relaxing visibly, Ha-neul laughed and shook her head. "Sorry, unni; he's a nice guy, but there's no such connection."

"Maybe there should be! You guys could get married and have some really tall babies that we can train to play basketball!"

Su-jin couldn't help laughing along with the others, but she knew better than to keep up with the teasing. They couldn't risk the others finding out the truth, which could also affect _her_, in a way. "You'll have to get Ha-neul's dad to approve first," she reminded her teammate lightly.

"Oh, yeah," Kyung-soon said, crestfallen. "And as good as Kim Byung-hyeon is for the future of basketball in Korea, I don't know if I can get that face past Uncle Kang-dae."

"We can't waste Ha-neul's good looks on him, anyway," Sun-mi told her. "We should look for someone tall _and_ good-looking."

Ha-neul managed a laugh. "Well, once you find the perfect guy, let me know, OK?"

The former co-captain grinned at her. "Only if we decide not to keep him for ourselves."

* * *

"That was close," Ha-neul muttered as she and Su-jin scuttled away from their friends a short while later, pretending that they needed to speak with Ha-neul's father about the ride home. "For a while there, I thought Kyung-soon unni knew about me and Shin-woo."

"Me, too," Su-jin agreed. "I mean, you put Shin-woo in touch with her about doing the song for this thing. You obviously have some contact with him."

"I guess she thought it was only because I did those videos with AN JELL." The taller girl sighed and glanced at the stage in time to see the band end with a flourish and bow to an appreciative audience. "And thanks to the interrogation, I totally missed their performance."

"You've heard the song before," she reminded her friend.

Ha-neul pouted. "Yeah, but not _officially_."

Su-jin chuckled. Ha-neul had been very proud when Shin-woo's composition had been chosen for the campaign, and not just because it had been her suggestion to try out in the first place. She tended to be fanatically supportive of her boyfriend — not that it was a bad thing, of course. It was just funny to see her lose her head over something that wasn't basketball for a change.

Just then, she caught sight of a familiar face. "Hey, there's Go Mi-nyeo. Let's say hi."

"Good idea," Ha-neul agreed eagerly. "That'll keep us away a little longer."

Mi-nyeo spotted them right away when they waved to her, and she smiled and waved back. "Hello!" she greeted them as they approached. "Your poster looks great, Ha-neul unni. Congratulations."

She smiled back. "Thanks. Did you get to speak with anyone about helping out at the orphanage?"

Mi-nyeo nodded happily, then gestured towards the young woman standing beside her. "Unnis, this is Reporter Park. She's writing a book about AN JELL."

Su-jin didn't get a good look at the writer that day at the café, but the information was enough to put her on her guard. She nodded politely. "Hello."

"Reporter Park," Mi-nyeo continued, "this is—"

"—So Ha-neul and Moon Su-jin, I know," the writer finished, smiling a little shyly at the girls. "I followed the women's basketball team during the Beijing Olympics. It's an honor to meet you."

"Thanks," Su-jin answered, beaming. She wasn't at all jealous of Ha-neul or her pro player teammates, but it was nice to get a little share of the recognition for a change. "It's good to meet you, too."

"How did you get involved in the campaign?" Reporter Park asked Ha-neul then, looking _way_ up so she could see the other girl's face. (The top of her head barely came up to Ha-neul's shoulder, which made Su-jin feel a lot better about her own height.) "Is it because Coordinator Rhee is your former teammate?"

Ha-neul nodded. "As you can see, all of us are still very close, so we always help each other if we can. Besides, it's a very good cause," she added. "Playing sports is obviously very important to us, and some of my unnis already have kids of their own, so we also like that the campaign wants to help children become healthy."

"Well, I think it's very nice seeing your team support each other after all this time," the writer said, addressing both the girls again this time.

"It's fun when we're together," Su-jin told her. "Sometimes we end up causing a scene, but it's always fun."

* * *

Oh-lan ended up spending most of the afternoon with Go Mi-nyeo, and AN JELL knew it when they finally came back to collect her after the end of the event. "We hope it wasn't too much of an inconvenience," Tae-kyung said.

"Oh, no, it wasn't a bother at all," Oh-lan assured him. "We had a nice time chatting, and Mi-nyeo was actually a big help with my work this afternoon." Helping her find someone to talk to about helping her orphanage had given Oh-lan an opportunity to get some good quotes from a foundation officer. It had also been fun meeting Mi-nyeo's friends on the Beijing women's basketball team.

"What did she tell you?" Jeremy asked, looking suspicious.

"We didn't talk about you, if that's what you were thinking," she told him, wondering why he sounded so defensive. She already knew that Tae-kyung and Mi-nyeo were in a relationship, didn't she? Maybe Jeremy had forgotten.

"We talked about my work at the orphanage," Mi-nyeo told him.

"And I pointed out all the cute guys," Oh-lan added, giving Tae-kyung an arch look. "Which didn't include any of you, because, like I said, we didn't talk about you." She nudged Mi-nyeo, as if to remind her to play along. The other girl tried her best to do so, but the blushing and giggling didn't help. Still, Oh-lan couldn't help thinking that there was at least _one_ member of the Go family who wasn't a lying, irresponsible rat.

Predictably, the boys rolled their eyes at their silliness. "Well, we really appreciate your help despite your trying to lead Mi-nyeo astray," Tae-kyung told her. "Can we treat you to dinner?"

Oh-lan was so surprised by the invitation that she failed to notice the murmuring from the other band members. "Are you sure about that?"

"I wouldn't offer if I wasn't sure, Reporter Park," the vocalist assured her.

"Well, then, in that case," she replied with a polite smile, "I accept. Thank you."

* * *

"I can't believe you did that, hyung," Jeremy hissed to Tae-kyung as they brought up the rear of the little group heading into an upscale restaurant not far from the Olympic Park. "Batgirl and Cookie Monster are joining us tonight, remember?"

"I do remember," the vocalist replied. "But it shouldn't matter — Reporter Park already knows that you and Shin-woo have girlfriends, right? If she's a professional like she says she is, then you don't have to worry. On the other hand," he added, "if this becomes public, then we'll know who to blame." However, even he looked nervous at the idea.

Mi-nam heard the others talking and checked to see if Oh-lan had overheard, but she seemed to be busy listening to Mi-nyeo's chatter. That was a good thing, because all of his bandmates were so tense that Jeremy was practically vibrating. "If you guys don't relax," he said in a low voice as a waiter showed them to a table in the back, "she's going to notice that something's up."

"We're _trying_," Shin-woo muttered back, taking a deep breath as if to show that he was making the effort.

"Stay between us and the girls, Mi-nam," Jeremy told him.

Mi-nam made a face in reply, but did as he was asked and took the seat beside Oh-lan. She was so obviously trying to ignore his presence and, they all hoped, maybe anything going on in his general direction.

However, she didn't miss Ha-neul and Su-jin's arrival, and her eyes grew wide as the other girls, who had already been alerted, cautiously approached the table. Mi-nam could almost hear the wheels turning in her head as her gaze swiveled from them to his bandmates, who were torn between avoiding her eyes and meeting them squarely.

Since she was probably really smart, it wasn't long before Oh-lan made her conclusions and spoke. "I think I have an idea of why you're here," she told the newcomers slowly. "_But_, I don't want to know if I'm wrong or right. I don't care. This is all off the record." She dumped her bag in Mi-nam's lap and held up her hands. "See? No notebook, no recorder, no camera. Off the record."

Her declaration, as well as Mi-nam's loud _"Oof!"_ when the bag landed in his lap, broke the tension. "What do you have in here?" Mi-nam complained as the others laughed in relief and the girls took their seats. "It weighs a ton!"

She looked at him for what felt like the first time in ages. "That would be the severed head of the last person who tried to give me wrong information," she informed him crisply.

"Pretty small head."

"He was a very stupid man."

"Reporter Park," Shin-woo said then, nodding towards the girl seated across the table from him, "this is Ha-neul. My girlfriend."

"We met earlier," Oh-lan told him, nodding to her. "It's nice to see you again."

"Thank you," Ha-neul answered, blushing and trying not to look thrilled about being introduced as Shin-woo's girlfriend.

"I met Su-jin earlier, too," the writer added.

"I'm here as a chaperone," Su-jin announced.

"That's very noble of you," Oh-lan told her, a compliment that the other girl accepted with queenly dignity.

_"Hey!"_ Jeremy protested.

"Things are... complicated between those two," Mi-nam explained to the writer as Jeremy and Su-jin naturally started to squabble. (He often wished that Jeremy would just kiss Su-jin and get it over with, but it seemed that the idea hadn't occurred to the redheaded boy yet.)

She held up a hand, palm facing him. "I don't want to know."

"Aren't you taking that a bit too far?" he asked, emboldened by the fact that she was talking to him again. "Why don't you just put your hands over your ears and scream _lalalala_?" Some of the kids at the orphanage had done that when they didn't want to listen to what people were telling them. Jeremy still did it sometimes.

Was it just him, or did she smile ever so briefly at that? "I just might do that if you don't stop telling me things I don't want to know."

Mi-nam smirked. "Then maybe I'll keep telling you those things, just so I have a chance to see you do it."

* * *

Oh-lan's promise that everything that night was off the record helped ease everyone's worries, but they still couldn't help being a bit more restrained with her around. Mi-nam could tell that she knew this, and that she was just as nervous as them about the situation. She ate quickly and said very little, and he was sure that he heard her breathe a small sigh of relief as she excused herself to go to the bathroom.

She stayed away for a pretty long time. Mi-nam knew from considerable experience that girls took forever in the bathroom, especially when they went in groups, but this was ridiculous. He looked around, glad that the three couples at the table were too busy with each other to pay any attention to him, and spotted her bright pink sweater at the restaurant's bar.

It was Oh-lan, all right, and she was talking to a guy. The guy was pretty well-dressed if you liked that type, but he was on the skinny side and had one of those thin mustaches that a lot of older guys thought was really cool but actually was not.

Mi-nam was too far away to tell whether or not she was enjoying the guy's company. That meant, of course, that he had to come closer and investigate. Excusing himself to his still-oblivious friends, he rose and sauntered over to the bar.

He arrived just in time to hear the guy ask Oh-lan about the girls sitting with AN JELL. "They're my friends," she answered, to Mi-nam's surprise. "I invited them over to introduce them to the band. Since I'm hobnobbing with celebrities now, I should take advantage of these opportunities, right?"

"Definitely," Mi-nam replied, alerting the pair to his presence. He flashed them a charming smile as they turned to him. "Your friends were wondering where you had gone, Reporter Park, and they sent me to find you."

"Well, I was supposed to have come back much earlier," she replied, "but I ran into a co-worker and had to say hello.

"This is Reporter Kim Soon-ok," Oh-lan went on, nodding towards Mr. Mustache. "He's a senior reporter at the magazine where I work. Reporter Kim, I'm sure you know Go Mi-nam of AN JELL."

"Of course," Reporter Kim said, bowing smoothly. "It's a pleasure, Go Mi-nam."

Now that he was much closer, Mi-nam noticed that Oh-lan's knuckles were white as she gripped a nearby barstool. That, and practically everything about the other man, made him dislike the guy instantly. Unfortunately, he couldn't afford to be rude in public, especially not to a reporter. "Likewise, Reporter Kim. I'm a big fan of _Inside Showbiz_."

Reporter Kim accepted the compliment with a gracious nod. "I was just telling Reporter Park how lucky she is to be doing the book project for your band," he said. "It's a great opportunity to advance her... relatively young career."

"Actually, sir, it's AN JELL who's lucky to have her writing our book. It's a very exciting time for us, and President Ahn was looking for someone with a fresh style to write about it properly. I think he chose the perfect person for the job."

"Well, I'm sure she will do very well," the senior reporter said with a thin smile.

Mi-nam gave him an affable grin. "Good, that makes all of us. Now, I wish we could hang out with you some more, Reporter Kim, but we're all getting ready to get out of here. My hyungs are going to treat Reporter Park and her friends to some drinks, and I don't want to keep them waiting. It was nice meeting you, though!" He grabbed Oh-lan by the shoulders and started steering her away from the bar. "Let's go, Reporter Park!"

"We're not really going for drinks, are we?" she muttered once they were out of earshot.

"We could if you want to," Mi-nam answered, still steering her by the shoulders back to their table. "But I said that mainly to get you away from that guy." He felt her muscles tense beneath his fingers. "You _did_ want to get away from him, right? Because I can take you right back to the bar if you didn't."

He pretended to turn her back to the bar, and was glad when she dug in her heels and refused to budge. "I don't want to go back there," she confirmed.

"That's what I thought. Who is he, anyway? A friend of yours?"

"Definitely not. He really is a senior reporter at the magazine. I think he was hoping to get chosen for the book project, but I got the job instead."

Mi-nam grinned. He'd had a feeling that praising Oh-lan would seriously annoy the guy, which was a huge reason why he had done it. "Yeah, maybe he's jealous," he agreed, "but it's also possible that he likes you."

"Yeah, right," she scoffed.

"No, seriously. If we were in elementary school, he'd be throwing mud at you and pulling your hair."

"I suppose I should be glad that we're not in elementary school anymore."

The distaste in her voice made his heart lift, but he didn't get the chance to bug her about it because they reached their table. "Reporter Park got lost on the way back from the bathroom," he explained to the others.

"I did _not_!" Oh-lan protested, finally wrenching free of his grip and turning to glare at him.

"All right, she did _not_," Mi-nam repeated dutifully. "But she did run into a fellow reporter at the bar, so if anyone asks, you girls are her friends and she was introducing you to AN JELL, OK?"

"What are you talking about?" Jeremy asked.

"The guy was asking about the girls at our table," Mi-nam told him. "That's the cover story she came up with. Pretty quick thinking, huh?"

"It's not a cover story!" Su-jin said. "Reporter Park really is our friend!" Then, without missing a beat, she asked her friend, "What's your name, anyway?"

"Oh-lan," she replied, her cheeks pink — whether from discovering that he had overheard her or from Su-jin saying that they were friends, Mi-nam didn't know. "My name is Park Oh-lan."

"Thanks for telling that reporter what you said, noona," Shin-woo said to her. "We really appreciate your helping keep our secret."

"It was nothing." Oh-lan waved away the guitarist's thanks. "I mean, since I _really_ have no idea what these girls are doing here, I had to make something up, didn't I?"


	10. Science Fiction Double Feature

**Disclaimer:** The AN JELL-verse belongs to the Hong sisters, creators of _You're_ _Beautiful;_ Hogwarts to JK Rowling, creator of the Harry Potter-verse, and Superman to DC Comics.

**Technical Notes:** Jeremy's dad's title is a real one. As I understand, it's currently vacant so I'm sure Queen Elizabeth doesn't mind if I borrow it.

**Author's Notes:** Thanks, as always, to KAZU (dot) BOU for the review! I really appreciate your support :)

_

* * *

Chapter Ten — Science Fiction Double Feature (from "The Rocky Horror Picture Show")_

That Sunday was Halloween. Since AN JELL had the next day off, they could have taken the opportunity to go out in public totally incognito, because on this night, chances were everyone would be in costume, but the boys were tired of going out and decided to celebrate with a small party, just them and the girls, at their house.

At least, that was what they were going to do once their guests actually arrived. "Where in the world are they?" Tae-kyung wondered. His satin-lined cape, the crowning touch of his vampire costume, swung dramatically from his shoulders as he paced. "They should be here by now."

"Ha-neul said it took them a little longer to get ready than they thought," Shin-woo reminded him. He was dressed as a punk rocker in shredded jeans, chains and leather.

"I don't see why the girls had to get Mi-nyeo from the convent and then go back to her place to dress up. They could have done it here."

"What, they're not here yet?" Jeremy demanded as he and Mi-nam entered the living room. Perhaps in a nod to his British ancestry, the drummer was wearing Hogwarts school robes, while Mi-nam was dressed as Superman (complete with, as Jeremy pointed out with relish, fake muscles).

"No," Tae-kyung grumbled. "If they're not here in half an hour, I'm changing out of this getup."

Mi-nam laughed briefly. "You think your costume is bad, brother-in-law? Try wearing your underpants on top of your clothes."

Just then, there was a knock on the door. The boys hastened to answer it, and opened the door to a trio of female voices shouting, _"Trick or treat!"_

The original three members of AN JELL blinked. It was almost like looking into a mirror.

It took them a while to realize that Mi-nyeo, Ha-neul and Su-jin had arrived, and that each girl was dressed up as her boyfriend (or, in Su-jin's case, semi-boyfriend). Mi-nyeo, with her hair slicked down over one eye, wore a dark tailored suit and a scowl. Su-jin wore an orange wig, shorts and what seemed to be one of Ha-neul's more colorful hoodies, because she was swimming in it, and carried a stuffed toy dog. Ha-neul had put up her long hair, donned jeans and a sweater in imitation of Shin-woo's more casual outfits, and slung a guitar-shaped bag over one shoulder.

"We're not coming in until you give us candy," Su-jin announced, and her partners in crime giggled.

"There's plenty in the kitchen," Mi-nam replied, grinning. "You'll have to come in and get it."

The temporarily redheaded girl arched an eyebrow, which disappeared under her fake bangs. "That's not how trick-or-treating is supposed to work."

"Well, we weren't expecting any trick-or-treaters tonight, especially ones as cute as the three of you."

Jeremy scowled. "Stop flirting with my girlfriend, Mi-nam, or I'll make you disappear!" He threateningly brandished the wand that had come with his costume. "Or at least poke you with this thing."

"Superman won't feel a thing if you did," Mi-nam boasted, striking a heroic pose.

"Oh, right," the drummer snickered, prodding Mi-nam's fake abs. "You have lots of padding."

Tae-kyung rolled his eyes. "I'd threaten to bite the two of you if it wasn't so unsanitary."

Only Shin-woo remembered his manners enough to play host. "Why don't you girls come in?" he invited. It was cold that night and the girls, who were carrying their coats instead of wearing them, were probably starting to feel it.

"Thanks," Ha-neul replied as they trooped inside.

The guitarist grinned at his girlfriend as he looked over her costume. "I make a good-looking girl," he chuckled.

"You would if you had my face," she bantered back.

Mi-nam went around collecting coats while the girls changed their shoes. His sister gave him an impish grin as he took hers. "Since we look alike," Mi-nyeo said, "we decided that I'm dressed up as you dressed up as Tae-kyung oppa."

He grinned. "That works."

For some reason, he found himself thinking about Oh-lan. He couldn't imagine the writer agreeing to dress up as him for Halloween, but she might have come in costume anyway. Since she was so small, perhaps she would have come dressed as a fairy. A fairy all in black, with bulky combat boots, raggedy bat's wings and maybe — since it was Halloween — red, red lipstick.

A sabertooth fairy.

Mi-nam chuckled and wondered what she was doing at that very moment.

* * *

The answer, of course, was writing. While most of the young people of Seoul were disporting themselves in colorful costumes at clubs and parties, Oh-lan was in her apartment, working on her book. At least, she was _trying_ to work on it, but there were just too many distractions.

First of all, it was cold. She hadn't yet turned on the heat to save money, and even though Genghis sometimes served as a furry portable heater, he was in a prowly mood that night and refused to stay still long enough to help keep his mistress warm.

Second, Oh-lan was hungry. Except for a hurried breakfast and lunch, she had tried to work for most of the day until the rumbling in her stomach became too loud to ignore. Naturally, when he saw her throwing together a hasty bowl of bibimbap, Genghis decided that he had to eat, too.

Finally, her mind just kept wandering. Despite her best efforts to clear her mind, all she could think about was the foundation event earlier that week and the dinner that followed. It had been pleasant meeting Go Mi-nyeo and the other AN JELL girlfriends. She wasn't sure whether Su-jin had truly meant it when she said that Oh-lan was their friend, but it had been nice to hear it and feel accepted by them, even for just a while.

AN JELL seemed to have more or less fully accepted her, too, Oh-lan thought as she and Genghis silently ate their dinner. There had still been some awkwardness during dinner, but at least they seemed comfortable enough to trust her with more of their secrets. She hoped that the cover story she had fed Soon-ok showed them that she was worthy of that trust.

Thinking about Soon-ok led her to think about Mi-nam and the things he had said. She tried to remind herself that he was a rat, but couldn't help smiling at how he had spoken so highly of her to Soon-ok, and at his unrepentant grin when he found out about the reporters' professional rivalry.

Oh-lan laughed briefly. All right, Mi-nam was still a lying, irresponsible rat, but that night, he had definitely been useful.

* * *

After a pleasant dinner, AN JELL announced that dessert would be served in the living room during the next part of the evening's program, a horror movie. "I heard it was the scariest one ever made," Jeremy told the girls as he loaded a tray with drinks, "like, there's an official record and everything. But don't worry!" he assured them cheerfully. "We'll be there to protect you!"

"Something's up," Su-jin muttered when he was gone, leaving the girls alone in the kitchen to put the candy that was their dessert into bowls.

"What do you mean, unni?" Mi-nyeo asked her.

"I mean, the guys are planning something. That's the _third_ time Jeremy's told us that the movie is really scary."

"Even Shin-woo said, during dinner, that it was a good horror movie," Ha-neul observed as she emptied a bag of butterscotch candies in a bowl. "I think they're trying to make us nervous. But why?"

"They're probably expecting us to hold on to them during the scary parts," Su-jin said. "Isn't that why guys take girls to scary movies?"

"I don't know," Ha-neul replied as Mi-nyeo giggled. "I always said no when they invited me to watch horror movies."

"Well, trust me, that's most probably what they have in mind." She arched an eyebrow at her friends and ripped open another bag of candy. "The question is, are we going to let them get away with it?"

Ha-neul blushed and, for a while, Su-jin was afraid that she would just say yes. Her friend was crazy about Shin-woo, after all. However, to her relief, she grinned mischievously. "Maybe not right away?"

"Right," Su-jin agreed. "So here's what we'll do..."

Noisily opening bags and rattling candies into bowls to drown out their whispers, the girls quickly worked out a game plan. They were just finishing up when Tae-kyung called out to them from the living room. "Hey! The movie's starting!"

"What was taking you girls so long?" Mi-nam laughed as Su-jin and the others joined AN JELL in the living room.

"We were just making sure that everyone got enough candy," his sister told him as she handed him a bowl.

He looked at it and at the others that the girls carried. "This is a lot more than you guys have."

"That means you're going to be the most popular guy in the room later," Su-jin teased.

Naturally, that made Jeremy scowl and grab a handful of candy from Mi-nam's bowl. "Then I'm taking this right now."

Su-jin hid a smile as she dumped her stuffed dog and the bowl of candy in the redheaded boy's lap and sat down on the floor beside him. Jeremy refused to listen to her repeated explanations that Mi-nam was just a friend. It had aggravated her at first, but then she eventually decided to give up and enjoy having a guy act jealous over her. It was actually kind of sweet how he bit into the fake every time.

"Is everyone comfortable?" Shin-woo asked. When everyone assured him that they were, he shut off the lights and made his way to Ha-neul's side by the light of the wide-screen TV.

Su-jin felt Jeremy move closer to her not long after the movie began, making her even more confident that she was right about the boys' motives for showing a horror movie. (Having him so close also made it a little more difficult to concentrate on what they were watching, but of course she wasn't going to say so.)

To be fair, Jeremy and Shin-woo had been right when they said the movie was very scary. It wasn't just the realistic special effects, but also the chilling storyline and the way the suspense built up. Su-jin was very tempted to scream in several instances, but held herself back, knowing she had to choose just the right moment.

It came when everyone clearly thought the ghost was about to show herself. All around her, everyone, including Jeremy, was clasping their hands, breathing shallowly and trying not to be the first to scream in fright.

When the ghost appeared on-screen, Su-jin squealed and, right on cue, all the girls grabbed on to Mi-nam.

* * *

"That was a dirty trick," Shin-woo told Ha-neul later that evening.

"Whose idea was it to watch a scary movie in the first place?" she countered.

"Mi-nam's, actually."

She laughed, her breath forming puffs of mist that hung in the cold night air. "Then it worked out just fine... for him, anyway."

They were sitting, bundled in their coats, on the front deck of the AN JELL mansion. Jolie was with them, her head currently on Shin-woo's knee. After the movie, some of the boys had suggested a game of basketball to work off the sugar from the candy, but Mi-nyeo and Tae-kyung chose to watch another (non-scary) movie and Ha-neul wasn't wearing athletic shoes, so Jeremy and Su-jin ended up playing one-on-one with Mi-nam serving as referee.

From the back of the house, they heard a whistle blow and the sound of Jeremy's voice. "Sounds like the referee is showing his bias again," Shin-woo observed.

"Su-jin probably elbowed Jeremy for getting too close but Mi-nam gave him the foul," Ha-neul chuckled. "It's cruel how those two are ganging up on poor Jeremy."

"Speaking of cruel," he teased, remembering the first time they had played basketball against each other, "I thought you were the only person who elbowed guys who got too close."

"Of course not!" she scoffed. "I learned it all from her."

Jolie whined, begging for someone to pat her, and they reached down at the same time to oblige her. Shin-woo caught Ha-neul's hand when their fingers brushed; she blushed, but made no move to withdraw. It was nice to hold hands with her boyfriend when they were normally so cautious about showing affection in public. Besides, her fingers were getting rather cold.

"It was... very nice of you to introduce me to Reporter Park as your girlfriend," she said, leaning her head on his shoulder. "You didn't have to do that, but I really appreciate it."

"She knew I had a girlfriend already, anyway."

"You didn't have to tell her it was me."

"She probably would have guessed, since you were there, so I supposed that I might as well tell her the truth." Shin-woo ran his thumb over the silver ring that said "Love" on her finger. The matching one hung from a chain around his neck. "Besides, it was nice to actually tell someone."

"It was, but really, don't feel pressured to do that. You know I don't mind keeping our relationship a secret." She smiled up at him as Jolie moved her head to her knee in search of more pats. "The important thing is that it's _our_ secret."

From the living room, they heard Mi-nyeo and Tae-kyung laughing. "I guess they're watching a funny movie," Shin-woo remarked.

"Mmm." Ha-neul raised her head off his shoulder, leaving him feeling oddly bereft. "You used to like Mi-nyeo, didn't you?" she asked him then.

He considered saying no and sparing his girlfriend's feelings, but since she didn't sound angry, jealous or even worried — not that she had a reason to be any of those things — he supposed that he could afford to be honest. "I did, once," he admitted. "But I let her go when it was obvious that Tae-kyung was the one she loved."

"I see," she said quietly. "I kind of got a feeling that you liked her when she first came back from Africa." She traced a heart on Jolie's head with her finger, then scratched the dog's ears. "Do you... do you still care about her?"

"Purely as a friend," he assured her. "I got over it even before she returned. You see, this crazy person elbowed me in the stomach and knocked all those old feelings clean out of my body."

She made a face. "Did you _have_ to bring that up?"

"Of course. It's true, after all." Shin-woo grinned and, to ease the brunt of his teasing, leaned over and kissed her. "Does that make you feel better?"

"I don't know..." Ha-neul looked thoughtfully up at the velvety black sky, and then giggled. "I think you need to kiss me again so I can make sure."

* * *

It wasn't a wild party by any standard, and it didn't even end too late because Su-jin and Mi-nyeo had to work the next day, but the boys of AN JELL wound up sleeping well into the morning, unanimously deciding to use their rare day off to get some well-deserved rest.

They were all sleeping so soundly that no one heard the doorbell ringing. It was only when Jolie began to bark that Jeremy, whose room was situated near the front of the house, was finally roused.

Grumbling, he dragged himself out of bed and, not even bothering to smooth his sleep-rumpled hair or throw on a bathrobe over his dinosaur pajamas, stumbled down the stairs and to the front door. He yanked it open and looked, bleary-eyed, at the people standing on the doorstep.

His jaw dropped when the guests gradually came into focus. He rubbed his eyes in disbelief, but they didn't go away.

Finally, Jeremy croaked, "Dad?"

James Maitland, Lord Thirlestane and Boulton, stood at the door, with his hand-tailored coat on his arm and his wife, the former fashion model Ryu Hea-jung, at his side.

"Hello, Jeremy," Lord Maitland replied.


	11. Meeting

**Disclaimer:** The AN JELL-verse belongs to the Hong sisters, creators of _You're_ _Beautiful;_ and the KB Kookmin Bank and the Shilla Hotel to its stockholders.

**Technical Notes:** Just something regarding the formatting - I've italicized the conversations in English to show that they're in a foreign language. Also, of course AN JELL knows how to speak English - Jeremy taught them :)

**Author's Notes:** Thanks, as always, to Buru-beri-chan and KAZU (dot) BOU for the reviews! Happy weekend, everyone!

_

* * *

Chapter Eleven — Meeting (FT Island)_

"You're wearing _that_?"

Su-jin's gaze darted to the door as Ha-neul walked into her bedroom. "Yes," she said. Her eyes widened in panic. "Is anything wrong with it? _What's wrong with it?_"

"Nothing," her friend answered, chuckling. "You look great."

_"Auughhhh!"_ Su-jin shrieked and threw a shoe at the other girl. "Don't do that to me!"

Ha-neul laughed and dodged the projectile. "Well, you say it to me all the time!"

"Don't say it to me tonight! I'm nervous enough as it is!"

She flopped down on her bed, which was piled with discarded clothing. Su-jin had bought a new outfit especially for that night's important dinner with Jeremy's parents, but panicked at the last minute and spent that morning pawing through her closet for alternatives. Dozens of costume changes later, she decided to wear what she had bought for the occasion in the first place.

"Come on, don't do that," Ha-neul begged. "You'll crumple your skirt. And please don't be nervous. You really do look wonderful. Like the perfect girlfriend."

"You really think so?" She looked down, her dangling gold earrings swinging against her cheeks, and smoothed the skirt of her dress, which was a demure pale peach with black lace accents to give it some edge.

"Yes, I do. And I'm sure Jeremy's parents will love you."

"I hope so."

Su-jin truly did, for Jeremy's sake. Even if they disagreed a lot, she knew that he wanted his parents' approval very badly and she sincerely wanted to get it for him. Based on what Jeremy had said, his mother was a cool mom and would probably like her. It was his father that was the problem. Lord James Maitland wasn't a cruel man, but his son had always found it hard to tell what he was thinking.

"You look very nice, too," she remembered to say then. "But I think you need a bangle or something. Want to borrow one?"

Ha-neul shook her head and waved off the offer. "I want to keep it simple. You're the star tonight, not me."

"What? You dressed down on purpose?" Su-jin's eyes misted over.

"Yes, but please don't cry about it. If you do, you'll ruin your makeup, and then you'll have to fix it, and then we'll be late. We still have to pick up the cake and flowers, remember?"

"Right." She laughed shakily. "We should get going."

Although the girls both had their own cars, Ha-neul had agreed to hitch a ride so that Su-jin wouldn't have to face Jeremy's parents alone. Arriving together would also provide a means of escape (with Ha-neul pleading to be taken home because she had an important appointment early the next day) if things got really bad.

Su-jin's mother, Kim Jae-hwa, was doing some embroidery in the living room and looked up when the girls entered on their way to the front door. "Don't you girls look lovely!" the plump, gray-haired lady exclaimed. "Are you going to a club?"

"No, Omma," Su-jin answered as she and Ha-neul donned their coats and shoes. "Just having dinner."

"It looks like it's a pretty fancy dinner."

She had no idea what they would be eating, but knew that they would have some fancy guests, at least. "Yeah, I guess it is."

Her mother's eyes twinkled. "Will anyone special be at this dinner?"

"Maybe," she admitted, blushing.

"Well, if he is, we're going to have to meet him. Yours, too, Ha-neul," Mrs. Moon added, wagging her needle at the other girl. "Just because your mother's not around doesn't mean you can sneak around with some random guy behind your father's back."

Ha-neul laughed. "Not to worry, Auntie. Appa has met my boyfriend already, but if you want to meet him, too, then I'll introduce him to you sometime."

By now, Su-jin was strongly tempted to run back to her room and lock herself in, but she managed to say, "We should get going. I'll see you later, Omma."

"Goodbye, girls. Have fun, but don't stay out too late!"

* * *

Su-jin's heart was in her throat when she and Ha-neul walked up to the door with their cake and flowers, and rang the bell. Almost instantly, they heard scrabbling footsteps and Jeremy's voice crying _"That's them! They're here!"_ from inside. Ha-neul laughed quietly, but Su-jin didn't know whether to be amused or annoyed that he was acting so silly.

A wild-eyed Jeremy yanked the door open. "Hi," he greeted the girls, sounding like this was a top-secret mission instead of a family visit. "Come in. They're in the music room."

After hustling them inside and helping them with their things, the redheaded boy dashed to the kitchen to put the cake in the refrigerator. Su-jin was just beginning to follow Ha-neul, who was carrying the flowers, downstairs to the music room when Jeremy barred her way. "Wait," he said softly. "Before we go downstairs... I want to give you something."

The "something" turned out to be a bracelet of heavy gold links, decorated with colorful butterfly charms. "I picked it out myself," he said as he fastened it around her wrist.

It didn't match her outfit as well as the gold-and-black cuff she had been wearing, but Su-jin took off the cuff and stowed it in her purse. "Thank you, Jeremy. It's beautiful."

"Thanks for doing this." He took her hand in both of his and squeezed it. "Come on, let's go."

They entered the music room in time to hear a female voice speak her name.

_"Su-jin? My, you're a tall girl, aren't you?"_ the voice continued in English. The speaker was a slender woman who looked just a little older than the girls. Her hair was in a neat bob, and she wore a dark blue, long-sleeved cocktail dress. Beside her sat a brown-haired man in an expensive suit who had to be Lord Maitland, Jeremy's father; there was a resemblance around the nose and chin.

Ha-neul's eyes grew wide and Shin-woo hastened to set things straight. _"Uh, Auntie,"_ he said, also in English, obviously for Lord Maitland's benefit,_ "this is __my__ girlfriend, So Ha-neul."_

"Oh," Lady Maitland said without batting an eyelash, and smoothly switched to Korean. "How nice. You're the one who models for Eun-hee unni, right?"

Ha-neul nodded. "It's nice to meet you." She said the same thing in English to Jeremy's father, and looked around wildly for her friend.

She managed to hand Su-jin the flowers just as Jeremy led her forward. _"Dad, Mum,"_ he said, the foreign words flowing smoothly from his lips, _"I'd like you to meet Moon Su-jin."_

Su-jin willed herself to smile charmingly at Jeremy's parents. _"Hello,"_ she said, sounding out the words carefully. _"Good evening."_

His father acknowledged her greeting with a polite nod. _"It's a pleasure, Miss Moon."_

Jeremy's mother, on the other hand, beamed and rose to take Su-jin's hand from her son. _"We're so happy to meet you at last,"_ the older woman said, and added something that Su-jin couldn't understand.

She wanted to just ignore it, but was afraid that it was something she would have to answer. _"Sorry,"_ she said, blushing. _"Please repeat that?"_

Lady Maitland nodded understandingly and repeated herself, but in Korean. "I said that we're so happy to meet you at last," she said kindly. "Jeremy has told us so much about you."

"Oh." Su-jin wanted to shoot him a suspicious look, but couldn't very well do that in front of his mother and decided to just smile instead. Then she remembered that she was still holding the flowers and presented them to the held them out to Jeremy's mother. "These are for you," she said, hoping that it was all right to speak in Korean. She was directly addressing Lady Maitland anyway, and she was far too tongue-tied to think of the proper English words, let alone speak them.

"Thank you!" The older woman accepted the bouquet, the largest that Su-jin could afford, with a gracious smile. "They're beautiful. Could you put these in water, Jeremy?" she asked her son. "I think they'll look wonderful at the dinner table."

Jeremy looked poleaxed as his mother handed him the flowers. "Uh—"

"While we're waiting for you to come back," Lady Maitland added, "Su-jin and I will get to know each other better. Come, dear, sit with me."

The older woman was already starting to tow Su-jin towards where she had been sitting with Jeremy's father, so Su-jin had no choice but to follow. She sent Jeremy a frantic look over her shoulder, but all he could do was send her a terrified look back before fleeing with the flowers.

* * *

Jeremy was glad that his bandmates and their girlfriends were present that evening, because if it was just him, Su-jin and his parents, he was sure he would have gone crazy. Everyone was on their best behavior and those who were able gamely made conversation in English so that Jeremy's father, who understood Korean much better than he could speak it, didn't have to sit mutely through dinner.

They talked about Lord and Lady Maitland's plans for while they were in Korea. Besides visiting their son, Lady Maitland also wanted to visit her parents' graves and childhood friends near Daejeon. She and her husband would also make the rounds of their favorite museums in Seoul, and of course watch the AN JELL mini-concert that would be held while they were in town.

_"I hope you can come, too, Su-jin,"_ Jeremy's mother said, smiling.

Jeremy smiled, too. His mother was nice to everyone, but she seemed to be making an extra effort with Su-jin. Perhaps she was doing it because Su-jin was the girl her son liked, but he hoped it was also partly because Lady Maitland liked Su-jin as a person.

_"I'm working,"_ Su-jin answered politely, _"but I'll try."_

_"What is it you do, Miss Moon?"_ Lord Maitland asked her then. _"What kind of job do you have?"_

_"I'm an..." _She looked around imploringly at her friends. _"Analyst?"_

Ha-neul nodded. "I think that's the right word."

_"I'm an analyst at the KB Kookmin Bank,"_ Su-jin said, turning back to Jeremy's father.

_"That's the biggest bank in Korea, Dad,"_ Jeremy added.

Lord Maitland nodded slowly, but he didn't say "Wow!" like Jeremy's mother did, or make the "impressed" face he made whenever one of Jeremy's uncles bragged about something. _"Very nice. Do you like your work?"_

Su-jin nodded. _"It's a good job. Regular, but... we study different things all the time."_

There was The Nod again, followed by a small smile. _"You speak very good English, if you don't mind my saying."_

She smiled and ducked her head. _"Thank you. It's not ...perfect,"_ she said humbly,_ "but I know some."_

_"Where did you learn to speak so well?"_

_"From school. I took some English classes in school, and also from playing basketball abroad."_

Here, Jeremy saw another opportunity to try and impress his father. _"Remember, Dad, I told you that Su-jin was in the Beijing Olympics? She and Ha-neul were teammates. And they won a big international tournament, too."_

_"The FIBA Asian Championship,"_ Ha-neul supplied, and have her friend a teasing nudge. _"The newspapers called Su-jin the best point guard in Asia."_ Jeremy shot her a grateful look and she smiled back.

_"Really?"_ Lady Maitland gasped. _"That's wonderful!"_

On the other hand, instead of being impressed, her husband wanted to know, _"Why didn't you keep playing?"_

_"I had to finish college and get a good job,"_ Su-jin answered. _"To support my mother and father."_

Lord Maitland frowned, and Jeremy held his breath. _"They're not working?"_

She shook her head. _"They're retired."_

That sounded like a perfectly good explanation for why Su-jin's parents weren't working, but of course Jeremy's father had to keep asking questions. _"No brothers or sisters?"_

She paused. _"I had a brother,"_ she said finally. _"He died."_

Silence fell over the table. Jeremy started at his plate, his cheeks burning. He hadn't known that. On the bright side, it stumped his father, too. _"I'm very sorry for your loss,"_ he said quietly.

But not for long. _"Where did you go to school?"_

* * *

Su-jin knew that she had worked herself into a panic over meeting Jeremy's parents, but dinner had turned out to be just one long job interview. She hoped she was able to answer Lord Maitland properly, because she hadn't completely understood some of the things he had said and just guessed based on the words that she did know. Jeremy was right; it was very hard to tell what his father was thinking.

Honestly, she thought as she glanced at the redheaded boy in the front seat, it was hard to tell what Jeremy was thinking right now, too.

Even though she didn't really want to, Su-jin took the scenic route to the Shilla Hotel, where Jeremy's parents were staying, so that they could see the city at night, and was glad when they finally pulled up outside the lobby.

_"Thank you so much for the lovely ride,"_ Lady Maitland said as they all got out of the car to say their goodnights.

Su-jin's answering smile was genuine, due partly to her relief that the evening was over, but also because Jeremy's mother was a truly nice woman. (Fortunately, Jeremy had inherited much of his personality from her, but she wasn't going to tell him that.) _"You're welcome."_ She bowed politely to the older woman and her husband. _"It was nice to meet the both of you."_

_"We will see you again, won't we?"_

_"Definitely,"_ Jeremy declared as he handed his mother her flowers, which he had arranged in a plastic pitcher, the only container he had managed to find. He said something else that Su-jin didn't catch, but it sounded like he was making more promises to bring her along to wherever they were going.

_"Good night, Jeremy."_ His mother kissed him on the cheek and, to Su-jin's surprise, gave her a kiss as well. _"Good night, Su-jin."_

_"Good night." _She was afraid that Lord Maitland would kiss her, too, but he just shook her hand when he wished her good night. He shook Jeremy's hand, too, but at least he also patted his son's shoulder.

She and Jeremy waved and waited for Lord and Lady Maitland to enter the glittering lobby. "Do you need to go back right away?" he asked when his parents were finally gone.

"Uh..." Su-jin stole a glance at him and saw that he wasn't smiling. "I don't think so. Why?"

"I want to go somewhere."

* * *

A short drive later, they were boarding a green bus near the ice cream parlor where Jeremy had told her he wanted to be her boyfriend for real. "We could have driven to wherever you wanted to go," Su-jin said as she followed him down the aisle, to a pair of seats near the back.

"This is where I wanted to go."

It was a typically Jeremy thing to say, but he sounded sad and tired as he said it; and Su-jin was too tired herself to start one of their usual arguments. "Oh," she said. "OK."

They sat down, and the bus started to move. She glanced at him, knowing that something was definitely wrong, but he sat silently, staring straight ahead.

"I'm sorry about your brother," Jeremy said after a while.

"It's all right," she answered. "It happened a long time ago."

"What was his name? What happened?"

"His name was Su-hyun. It was a car accident."

"I'm sorry." His hand covered hers and squeezed. "And I'm sorry that my dad interrogated you so much."

"It wasn't so bad," Su-jin assured him. "It felt kind of like a job interview, but with food."

He laughed briefly at that. "I wanted it to be a nice dinner."

She wanted to say that it _had_ been a nice dinner, but she honestly hadn't noticed the food on her plate or whether she had eaten any of it. "Well, we couldn't avoid the questions," she said instead. "This is the first time your parents are meeting me, after all. Besides," she added, "he's a dad. I'm sure that when—_if_ I ever introduce you to my dad, he would do the same thing."

Fortunately for her, Jeremy seemed to be too caught up in his own thoughts to have noticed her little slip. "No," he said. "I'm sure your dad would be protective of you so he'll ask some tough questions, but he wouldn't be a snob like my dad was tonight."

"Your dad wasn't being a snob."

"Believe me, he was," he said harshly. "If you were a daughter of one of his friends back home, he wouldn't have talked to you like that. He was trying to make it clear that you're not good enough." He swallowed hard. "That _I'm_ not good enough."

She laid a hand on his arm. "Jeremy..."

"I know he's not all bad," he said. "I'm sure Dad used to be cool — after all, he married someone like my mom, right? But they settled in Europe instead of coming to live here."

"How could that be bad?"

"What they said in my legend is true," Jeremy went on, as though he hadn't heard her. "My grandfather _is_ a Scottish aristocrat, the Earl of Lauderdale. I'm not going to inherit the title because Dad is the third son, and I don't care about it at all, but my dad sure does. Even if he won't ever become earl, he's always been concerned about being as rich and successful as his hyungs. He has to have a nice house in London, his wife has to always be beautiful." He sighed. "And his kids have to be perfect.

"Do you know why I came to Korea? Because I got kicked out of school. Dad put me and my sister in some fancy school where our family has been going for hundreds of years, and I hated it there. I admit it, I behaved badly, always fighting and getting into trouble, but that school tried to make everyone the same. We had stupid uniforms and all these strict rules, and the food was terrible." His voice trembled. "There were days when I thought I would rather tear out all my hair than get out of bed in the morning."

Su-jin made a sympathetic noise. Jeremy was silly about lots of things, but this was something she could actually understand. He prided himself on being a total original, and she could imagine how much he would hate a school like that.

"Dad was really mad, but I'm not sorry I left that school and got sent here," he declared. "I love Korea, and I'm doing very well with AN JELL." He slumped in his seat, his eyes bright. "But whenever my dad comes here, I start feeling like I'm not good enough all over again."

Su-jin looked away as a tear rolled down Jeremy's cheek. Wordlessly, she dug inside her bag and handed him her handkerchief, then waited in silence as he dabbed at his eyes. "I don't want to disrespect your dad," she began quietly, "but I don't care if he thinks that I'm not good enough for you."

"Well, you are!"

Her cheeks grew warm at the insistent note in his voice, but she shrugged. "I think that the important thing is that I'm good enough for myself," she said. "And as for you feeling like you're not good enough, I think you should remember that you're your father's only son, so I don't think he has any choice." She smiled. "Besides, if he doesn't want you, I think every family in Korea would be happy to have you for a son. OK?"

He laughed shakily. "OK."

Su-jin leaned closer. She had meant to give him a consoling kiss on the cheek, but Jeremy turned his head at the last moment so that their lips met instead.

They pulled away quickly and she saw stars when her head hit the window. "Ouch!"

"Are you all right?" he asked, reaching over to rub the back of her head.

"I'm fine." She blinked hard to avoid having to meet his eyes. "Sorry about that."

"I'm sorry, too."

That made her turn to him in surprise, which turned out to be a bad move, because the look in his eyes made her heart start to race. "What?"

"I said I was sorry." Jeremy stroked her hair, twining his fingers in the curls. "That wasn't much of a kiss."

Su-jin's eyes were wide and, as he edged closer, he prayed silently that she wouldn't bolt. Exhilaration rushed through him when her eyes fluttered closed and he settled his lips over hers. Her hands came up, but instead of pushing him away her hands gripped his shoulders, and he put his arms around her, deepening the kiss.

"Wow," she said in a dazed voice when they finally came up for air.

He couldn't help grinning at that. "I know."

* * *

Despite his earlier dejection, Jeremy felt on top of the world when he and Su-jin got off at their stop. He was sure that the bus ride had a lot to do with it, but most of the credit probably belonged to that kiss and the fact that he and Su-jin were currently walking hand-in-hand.

"So, that was your magic bus?" she asked.

He nodded cheerfully. "It may sound silly to you, but I always feel better after I ride it."

"It's nice to be able to sit in a quiet place and think things over," she agreed. "Are you feeling better now?"

"I'm feeling a lot better," Jeremy confirmed, beaming. He knew she would understand. "Also, I'm hungry."

Su-jin laughed. "You're always hungry. Luckily for you, I'm hungry, too. Come on, I'll treat you to some ice cream. I haven't been back to that place you showed me last time, and I've been dreaming about the strawberry ice cream ever since."

"I told you it was good," he said. "Does this mean you're my real girlfriend now?"

She ducked her head, cheeks turning pink. "I'm getting there, Jeremy, I really am," she admitted, "but I need a little more time."

"I just thought I'd ask," he said, chuckling good-naturedly. OK, so his magic bus wasn't 100% successful. He could live with that. "But I'm still allowed to kiss you, right?"

Her blush deepened. "Maybe. Sometimes."

"That works for me, too."

They made their way to the ice cream parlor, joined hands swinging as they walked, blissfully unaware that they were being watched.


	12. Dizzy Boy

**Disclaimer:** The AN JELL-verse belongs to the Hong sisters, creators of _You're_ _Beautiful_.

**Author's Notes:** Thanks, as always, to Buru-beri-chan and KAZU (dot) BOU for taking the time every week to leave a review :) Happy weekend, everyone!

_

* * *

Chapter Twelve — Dizzy Boy (Pedicab)_

The main conference room at AN Entertainment was filled with people that morning. They came from various departments in the agency and most usually had little to do with each other, but they were gathering together that day because they were all, one way or another, involved with AN JELL's production, promotion and business management.

Naturally, President Ahn was seated at the head of the long conference room table with the members of AN JELL itself arranged on either side of him. "Is everyone here?" the head of the agency asked.

Ms. Jeung glanced at her checklist. "No, sir. The writer, Reporter Park, was in the middle of something when I called her office. She said she'll be here in a few minutes, though."

"What's this meeting for, anyway?" Mi-nam asked Shin-woo, who was seated next to him.

"President Ahn wants updates on all the activities that have to do with AN JELL," the guitarist replied. "He wants everyone who's involved with the band to know what's going on in each department so that we're all in sync with each other. Of course, we have to know all about it, too."

Just then, the door to the conference room opened and Oh-lan entered, notebook and pen at the ready. "I'm sorry I'm late, President Ahn," she apologized. "I was working on the book when Ms. Jeung called. I came as soon as I could."

She was greeted with an excited squeal from Stylist Wang and a number of whistles and catcalls from other members of the staff. That day, Oh-lan was wearing a more colorful, stylish ensemble instead of her usual black, and the change was dramatic enough to warrant the reactions.

AN JELL's manager smiled indulgently. "That's quite all right, Reporter Park. I'm glad you could join us today, and may I just say, you look very nice."

She acknowledged the compliment, and the fresh wave of teasing from the staffers that followed, with an embarrassed smile as she took the only remaining empty seat at the table, which happened to be right next to Tae-kyung and right across from Mi-nam. Mi-nam couldn't help loosing a wolf whistle of his own when she sat down; but where she had responded to the staffers' teasing with a wry little smile, she skewered him with a severe frown, which incidentally matched the one Tae-kyung gave him.

There was no time to react, though, because at that point, President Ahn rapped his knuckles on the table. "Now that everyone is here, let's begin."

* * *

Everyone — or, at least, everyone who stuck around — found out the reason behind the writer's choice of wardrobe after the meeting, when Stylist Wang pounced on her. "I'm so glad you've gone back to your new look!" she exclaimed, shaking Oh-lan's arm excitedly. "It really does look so much better on you than all that black. Is that the skirt that we bought in Itaewon?"

"It is," she replied self-consciously.

Mi-nam was surprised to hear that Stylist Wang had taken her shopping, but supposed it made sense that someone else had to be responsible for putting together her new look. (That skirt really was eyecatching... especially the fact that there wasn't much of it.)

"Well, you look _precious_ in it. Why the sudden change?" The stylist nudged her slyly. "Do you have a big date tonight?"

"I do, actually."

_Wait... what?_

Oh-lan had left the conference room and started down the hall back to her office when Mi-nam recovered from his surprise and darted after her. "You have a date?" he called as he ran down the corridor.

"Yes," she replied, not breaking her brisk stride. "Is that such a surprise?"

"Yes—I mean, no!" He scrubbed a hand over his face, reminding himself that he wasn't acting very smooth. "So, who's the lucky guy?" he asked in a more casual tone as he finally caught up with her. "It's not that jerk from the bar, is it?"

She snorted. "Ugh. Of course not."

They walked on in silence for a few moments. "Who is it, then?" Mi-nam persisted. _How does she expect me to believe her if she doesn't give details?_ he thought irritably. _Reporters, of all people, should know the importance of details!_

She sighed. "If you _must_ know, I'm meeting one of my father's fellow professors from the university."

"Oh." He relaxed and even managed a smile. If the dude worked at a university, then he couldn't be cooler than Mi-nam. That meant he still had a chance... or not. "Wait — this isn't a _mat-seon_, is it?"

_"No!"_ Oh-lan said, her cheeks turning pink. "My father just suggested that it might be nice to make a new friend, that's all. My parents would never force me into that kind of thing."

He was greatly relieved to hear that, but of course he wasn't going to say so. Instead, he said, "Well, if you're just meeting him to make friends, then why are you calling it a date?"

"Why can't I call it a date?"

"Reporter Park, you haven't gone on many dates, have you?" He slung a friendly arm around her shoulders. "Just because there's a guy and a girl involved doesn't mean it's automatically a date. There has to be some romance involved. Take it from me, I'm an expert."

He totally had all her best interests at heart, but she clearly didn't see that, because she threw off his arm and glared at him. "I may not have gone on as many dates as you, Go Mi-nam, but I've read enough about the subject to know that defining just what a 'date' is can be very tricky these days. So I'll call my meeting with Professor Chin whatever I want."

She drew herself up and, despite giving up several inches, managed to look down her nose at him. "And one more thing," she added crisply. "Neither he nor I may have romance on our minds at present, but I'm open to that possibility. Therefore, if anything happens between us, this will count as our first date. So there!"

* * *

"I'm sure you're very busy, so I appreciate your taking the time to come and meet with me."

Su-jin, perched on a luxurious leather armchair in the Shilla Hotel's Library lounge, smiled politely at the elegantly dressed woman seated across from her. "It wasn't any trouble."

Lady Maitland smiled back. "Would you like some tea? I'll pour some for both of us. I do this with my husband every day back home," she said as she poured tea into a pair of pure white china cups. "It feels a little strange to be pouring tea here in Korea. Cream and sugar?"

"Just sugar, please," Su-jin answered, still wondering why Jeremy's mother had invited her to have tea.

"As I was saying," the older woman continued while preparing their drinks, "thank you very much for meeting with me." She glanced up briefly. "I was hoping I could explain about what happened at dinner the other night."

"You don't have to. Je—your son has explained it to me already." She looked around to make sure that no one had heard her almost mention Jeremy by name. Even though there were probably other guys who called themselves Jeremy in Korea, Jeremy Maitland was the most famous one.

Lady Maitland urged her to help herself to the sandwiches and pastries that had been served with their tea. "What did he say?" she asked.

She hesitated. "If we're talking about all the questions that your husband asked me, he said that that was he was just being a protective father and that was the way things are done in his class. I mean, your class."

Jeremy's mother smiled dryly. "No, he didn't."

Su-jin gave a guilty laugh. "OK, he didn't," she admitted. "But regardless of what he really told me, I said it was OK. Your husband was just being a dad, and honestly, it wasn't so bad. It felt like a job interview."

"That's an interesting way of putting it," Lady Maitland said, laughing lightly. "Still, I can't help but feel bad. I know that my son likes you very much, and I had hoped to make a good impression."

She blushed. "It's all right. As I said, the things your husband did were understandable, and... well, you're being very nice to me, inviting me here and everything."

"I'm glad to know we didn't scare you off. I know for a fact that my husband doesn't have any real objections to Je—our son dating you. The two of them just have a rather complicated relationship."

Su-jin nodded. "I heard a little bit about that, too," she said quietly.

"Lord knows I've tried to get those two to sit down and talk things over," Lady Maitland sighed, "but if there's one thing they have in common, it's that they're both terribly stubborn."

She had to laugh at that, but prudently decided not to say anything more about it. "Maybe they'll get around to it someday," she said instead.

"It's going to be a long wait, with us living so far away. I worry about him sometimes." The older woman smiled and reached across the table to touch Su-jin's hand. "Which is why I'm glad he's found someone like you, Su-jin. At least I know he has someone to watch out for him, and to talk to about these things."

Su-jin colored again. She supposed this meant that Jeremy's mom, at least, approved of her as a girlfriend for him. That was a good thing, but... "I can't promise that I'll be able to do that as his girlfriend," she answered. "I know that your son likes me a lot, and I like him, too, but I need to be sure of things before we start a relationship.

"However," she went on before Lady Maitland could say anything, "I _will_ promise to stay by his side, at least as a friend."

* * *

Thanks to a number of business commitments, including the mini-concert that Jeremy's parents attended, it was a few days before Mi-nam could interrogate the writer about her date. Further, when AN JELL finally returned to AN Entertainment, it was to continue recording their upcoming album, so he spent the better part of the day waiting impatiently for a break.

The moment the band was given time to rest, he grabbed a couple of bottles of water made a beeline for Oh-lan's office. "So, how was the date?" he asked the moment he walked through the door.

As expected, she was at her desk, typing away on her laptop, and she frowned at him over the tops of her eyeglasses. "Aren't you supposed to be working?"

"We're on break. Here." He put one of the bottles on her desk. "How was your date?" he repeated.

She looked at him for a moment before turning back to her work. "It was quite pleasant, thank you. Is anything wrong with that?" she asked when Mi-nam snickered.

"No, not really," he replied, making himself comfortable on her couch.

"What are you doing?" she asked, sounding as though he were something disgusting that had crawled out of the heating vent.

"Just hanging out," he answered, opening his water bottle and taking a sip.

"I don't mean to be rude, but do you have to do it here in my office?"

"I like it here. It's quiet." He grinned as Oh-lan promptly put on some loud music just to spite him. "So, your date was 'quite pleasant,' huh?"

"That's what I said."

"And what is the good professor like? Does he wear glasses and ratty brown jackets?"

"Yes," she said truthfully, and scowled when Mi-nam started to laugh. "Hey, not all of us are celebrities who can afford to wear the latest fashions all the time. Maybe his wardrobe isn't the trendiest, but Professor Chin is a truly nice person. We get along very well."

That took a little of the wind out of Mi-nam's sails, but damned if he was going to show it. "Really now?" he replied, arching an eyebrow. "Well, since you like him so much, then maybe I should give you dating advice to make sure you get him."

* * *

Oh-lan hadn't been lying about her date with Professor Chin. It had gone well enough for him to invite her out a second time, and while he wasn't as snappy a dresser as the members of AN JELL, he was reasonably good-looking, with a full head of neatly trimmed hair and a square, earnest face.

They really did get along well, which wasn't really a surprise considering Oh-lan's understanding of the academic life and their mutual interest in books and reading.

What she hadn't told Mi-nam was that while she and Professor Chin got along, there didn't seem to be anything between them other than friendship. She wasn't actively looking for anything more, of course, but Mi-nam clearly thought otherwise and had been sending her "helpful hints" all throughout her second date with the professor.

_Don't sit up straight, but lean towards him a little to indicate that you're interested in him._

_Try to mirror his movements so he thinks that the two of you are in perfect sync with each other._

_Anything that draws attention to your mouth is a good thing._

She had been able to pretend that the first few were emergency messages from a co-worker, but when they kept coming, she silenced her cell phone. "But won't your co-worker need your help?" Professor Chin had asked when she announced that she was doing so.

"He'll be fine," Oh-lan replied. "Office hours ended at five-thirty and I really shouldn't be expected to hold his hand through every little thing, should I?"

"I suppose not."

There were five more unread messages from Mi-nam when her date excused himself to go to the restroom. Growling under her breath, she finally sent him a message: _Why do you keep bothering me?_

And he replied: _Why do you care?_

She _didn't_ care, Oh-lan told herself, but she also wasn't going to dignify that question with any answer. She was sure that Mi-nam wasn't going to let her have the last word, and they would be exchanging messages for the rest of the night, which wouldn't be fair to Professor Chin at all.

* * *

As if all those text messages weren't bad enough, the rat actually _called_ her while she and her date were on their way to a café for coffee and dessert. At first, Oh-lan ignored the buzzing in her coat pocket, thinking that it was another one of his stupid texts; but when the buzzing didn't stop, signaling that she was receiving a call, she had no choice but to check her phone.

"Is it your co-worker again?" Professor Chin asked.

"Yes," she replied flatly, ignoring the call and shoving the phone back into her pocket.

"He's working rather late, isn't he?"

"It takes him a while to get things right." She made a frustrated noise when the buzzing refused to stop. "I'm very sorry, Tae-mul, but I should probably answer and find out what's wrong."

"Of course," he said. "If he's calling instead of texting, it must be serious."

Oh-lan thanked him and walked a discreet distance away to answer the call. _"What do you want, Go Mi-nam?"_ she hissed.

"Hi, Reporter Park!" he said brightly. "How's your _daaaaate_?"

"Are you drunk?" In the background, she heard music and laughter, signs that he was probably at a bar.

He laughed. "If I am, then that explains why I'm feeling really, really good."

"Why in the world are you calling _me_?" she demanded.

"Hey, I may be protective, but I'm still drunk!" Mi-nam answered defensively. "I mean, I may be drunk, but—you know what I mean. Didn't I promise to help you tonight?"

"I don't need your help. Go home!"

"I wish I could," he said in a childish voice, "but I can't remember how."

Oh-lan groaned and smacked her forehead with her palm. He sounded like a cheerful drunk, as opposed to a mean one, but even cheerful drunks could get into trouble and this particular one could not afford to have any kind of scandal attached to his name. "OK, fine! Stay there! I'll call you right back!"

"Is it a very bad emergency?" Professor Chin asked when she rejoined him.

"You can't even begin to imagine." She looked up at him apologetically. "I'm afraid I have to cut the evening short, Tae-mul. I wish—"

"It's perfectly all right, Oh-lan," he assured her. "If it's been distracting you all night, it's probably a good idea to resolve it once and for all."

"Things can get very stressful at work," she explained lamely. "I should probably get another job. But you must allow me to make it up to you," she went on. "Maybe sometime next week?"

"I'd like that," he replied with a smile. "I'll call you tomorrow and we can compare schedules."

Oh-lan smiled back. He really was very nice, even if all they could ever really be were friends. "All right."

* * *

After another loud phone call, wherein she had to instruct Mi-nam three times to give his phone to a security guard or anyone who could possibly tell her where he was, Oh-lan bade her date good night and caught a cab to a nightclub in the Gangnam district.

He was sitting on the steps outside, coat open and scarf undone despite the late-autumn chill in the air.

"Jagi!" he greeted her happily, flinging out his arms when she appeared.

_"Ssshhhhh!"_ she hissed, and shook her head at the bouncer at the entrance, just in case the man recognized Mi-nam and started thinking things. "Obviously, he doesn't know what he's saying," she said to him, trying to laugh. "We're just friends."

"Very, very good friends," Mi-nam added, throwing his arms around her legs.

Oh-lan grabbed the wall to keep from falling. "I'm very sorry about this, ajusshi," she said to the bouncer as she tried to extricate herself from his grip. For a feminine-looking flower boy, he was pretty strong. "Did he cause any trouble? Did you have to throw him out?"

"No, miss," the burly man assured her in a rumbling voice. "He was just getting really loud, that's all. He came out and sat here on his own."

"Oh. I'm glad to hear it." Still holding on to the wall, she gave him a respectful bow. "Thank you for taking care of him."

The motion sent her hair, which she had worn loose that night, falling forward. Distracted, Mi-nam batted at the wavy mass like a kitten. "Ooh, pretty."

Oh-lan straightened and stepped away from him. "Will you please behave?" she admonished. "Where's your phone? Have you tried calling any of the others to come and pick you up?"

"No," he answered, obediently digging into his pocket for his cellphone.

She grabbed the gadget and tried to turn it on, only to discover that the battery was dead. _"Brauuughhhhh!"_

It would have been immensely satisfying to kick him, but that wouldn't have been nice considering his current state. Instead, Oh-lan grimly vowed future retribution as she hailed a taxi and dragged Mi-nam from the nightclub steps to the vehicle.

After an eternity of struggling, in which the taxi driver and the bouncer had been no use at all, she managed to dump him in the back seat and scramble in after him. "You're not going to throw up, are you?" she demanded after translating Mi-nam's garbled directions into comprehensible Korean for the driver's benefit.

"I'll be fine," he mumbled, leaning over and putting his head in her lap. "So long as I lie down."

She blushed and started to shift awkwardly, then remembered that it wasn't a good idea to jostle a drunk person. _Pretend he's Genghis,_ she told herself as Mi-nam snuggled against her thigh like her cat trying to find a comfortable spot to curl up for a nap. _He's Genghis and he just wants some attention._

Oh-lan supposed that she was doing a fairly good job of pretending he was her cat, because some time later, she found herself stroking his hair like she would Genghis' fur. She drew back her hand as if Mi-nam's head had suddenly burst into flames and, after a few moments of figuring out where to put her arm, reached up awkwardly and draped it along the back of the seat.

"If you vomit on me," she told him, "you're dead."

* * *

Manager Ma was surprised when Oh-lan summoned him to her office the next morning. "What is it, Reporter Park?" he asked as he entered and, at her invitation, took a seat on her saggy brown couch. "Do you need another interview for your book?"

"No," she answered, coming out from behind her desk. Rather than join him on the couch, she chose to remain standing, looking down on him. "I need to know why you weren't keeping an eye on Go Mi-nam."

"What?"

"He got drunk in a bar last night," she told him, trying (and failing) not to sound antagonistic. "Luckily for you, he didn't cause any major scandals or worse, get into an accident. Isn't it your job to protect the band? What were you doing while he was out there getting himself into trouble?"

The little man had shrunk into the couch cushions during her tirade. "I-I was accompanying Jeremy and Tae-kyung on their TV show guesting," he stammered. "I had to make sure they got there, didn't I? A-and Mi-nam never called me."

"No, he called _me_, and I had to cut my date short to do your work for you!"

"Well... why didn't _you_ call me?"

That brought Oh-lan up short. "I was distracted!" she said after a moment's pause, sounding a lot less angry than she had before. "I didn't know if he was in trouble, so I came right over. Don't you guys have rules about drinking or going off alone? Maybe you should have them, at least for the younger ones."

"They're all old enough to drink in public," Manager Ma said, sounding a bit defensive. "They wouldn't be allowed if they were too young."

"Maybe so, but they still have to learn how to control themselves. Could you please talk to Mi-nam about it, at least?" she asked plaintively. "I'm sorry I snapped at you, but it was a bit of an inconvenience. I even had to pay for the taxi."

He inclined his head. "I'll talk to him," he promised. "And we'll reimburse you for the cab fare."

Oh-lan nodded. "Thank you."

* * *

Though the talk with Manager Ma did a lot to calm her down, she became annoyed all over again when Mi-nam himself came to see her later that day. "Manager Ma talked to me about last night," he began, running a hand through his artfully rumpled hair. "I'm sure you're really mad at me, but I just wanted to say I'm sorry."

She folded her arms and regarded him sternly. "Do you remember anything about what happened?"

Mi-nam vaguely remembered throwing his arms around her and spending the ride home with his head in her lap, but guessed that she probably didn't want to be reminded of any of that. "Um... not really?" he hedged.

That, too, turned out to be the wrong answer. "If that's the case, then you obviously shouldn't be drinking," Oh-lan told him. "I'm not saying that you don't deserve to have fun, but you're a celebrity and you're in a band. You should be conscious of how you conduct yourself in front of other people, and how your actions might affect the other members of AN JELL."

He nodded meekly. Even though it was partly her fault that he had wound up in that situation, she was still totally right. "I didn't do anything... improper, did I?"

"The bouncer said you just got a little loud, that's all," she assured him, "but they didn't throw you out."

"How about... to you?"

Her cheeks turned pink, but she shook her head. "I wouldn't have allowed it."

"Of course not," he said with a brief chuckle.

"One more thing," Oh-lan said. "I didn't mind helping you because you needed it, but the next time something like this happens, you should call Manager Ma. It's his job to take care of you."

"Yeah, he told me that, too," Mi-nam replied. "Sorry I interrupted your date."

She sighed. "I'm working really hard on this book, but I need to have time for myself, too, and it's very hard to keep my personal and professional lives separate if you keep bothering me."

"I promise it won't happen again."

Oh-lan nodded."Well, thank you for coming to apologize."

He smiled. "I figured I owed you that, at least."

She started to turn back to her computer and Mi-nam prepared to take his leave, but she peered at him again at the last moment. "You seemed really drunk last night," she said. "How are you feeling today?"

He paused at the door and flashed her a grin. "Like an elephant stomped on my head," he admitted.

She sniffed. "I should hope so."


	13. Someone to Watch Over Me

**Disclaimer:** The AN JELL-verse belongs to the Hong sisters, creators of _You're_ _Beautiful_.

**Technical Notes:** The bit about Jeremy's sister comes from a deleted scene on the YB DVD, which I found on Youtube. (I don't know if they're still there.) Also, please be reminded that the conversations in English are italicized.

**Author's Notes:** Thanks, as always, to KAZU (dot) BOU for the review :) Happy weekend, everyone!

_

* * *

Chapter Thirteen — Someone to Watch Over Me (Ella Fitzgerald)_

In keeping with the group's new concept, AN JELL's new album as well as the accompanying book were to be entitled _Portrait of the Artists_, and with the launch dates for both looming, everyone at AN Entertainment got busy with the preparations.

For Mi-nam and the rest of AN JELL, it meant being shut up in the studio, putting the finishing touches on their album. Although they had been steadily recording material for the past few months, things were nevertheless hectic because the band and the production crew knew that it was their last chance to get everything perfect, so they were all working hard.

"Can't we move our beds into the studio or something?" Jeremy complained, stretching flat out on the floor during a break. "I can't remember what mine looks like anymore."

"This won't be for much longer, Jeremy," Shin-woo said encouragingly. "Think of how nice it will be to go home once this is all done."

Mi-nam thought that would be really nice indeed, but it also seemed like a _looooong_ way off, and if he didn't get out of the studio even for just a few moments, he was going to scream. Mumbling something about needing to go to the bathroom, he tore out of the sound booth.

Since it was already well after office hours, many of the agency's employees had already gone home, so the hallways were dim and quiet. Savoring the alone time after hours of being crammed in the studio with his bandmates, Mi-nam took a deep breath, stretched out his arms and even jumped a couple of times, trying to touch the ceiling and missing every time.

He wandered around aimlessly and just so happened to end up passing by Oh-lan's office. The slice of light under her door, visible in the dim corridor, told him that she was still there and most probably working. Even then, he thought that she could probably use a break, which was why he decided to drop in and pay her a visit.

Mi-nam knocked and opened the door without bothering to wait for an answer. As it swung open, he heard Oh-lan cry out in alarm. "Close the door, quickly!" she exclaimed. "He might get out!"

"Who?" he asked, startled, just as he heard a loud _meow_ at his feet. Mi-nam looked down to see a fat gray cat staring up at him. Fortunately, the cat seemed more interested in knowing what the intruder was doing there than in making an escape.

"Oh, him." Mi-nam closed the door and smiled down at the cat. He remembered her mentioning that she had one. "This is your cat, right? What's his name?"

"Genghis," Oh-lan replied. As usual, she was seated behind her desk, working at her laptop. A paper bag from a fast food restaurant, still closed, sat at her elbow.

"Why am I not surprised?" Grinning, he crouched down to pet Genghis, who closed his eyes and swished his tail. "He likes me."

"I guess he has to have at least _one_ fault," she sniffed.

Mi-nam picked up the cat and shot her a playful glare. "Hey, you should be nice to me, or else I'll tell President Ahn that you're keeping an animal in your office."

She made a face right back at him. "For your information, President Ahn already knows. I asked his permission before I started taking Genghis here. I had to because I hardly spend time at home anymore," she explained. "At least this way I can still take care of him."

"Is it that bad?" he asked as Genghis climbed up his arm and draped himself across Mi-nam's shoulders like a fur collar.

"The only time I spend outside of this office is the time I spend sleeping and commuting to and from my place," she replied, sounding tired. "But it's only for a little while longer, until I finish the last chapters of the book."

"Well, if it makes you feel any better, we've been here all night, too. We have to finish the album." The cat twitched his tail across Mi-nam's face, making him look like he had a bushy gray moustache, and Mi-nam sneezed.

Oh-lan laughed. "It does make me feel a little better, actually. At least I'm not the only one stuck here, working."

Just then, his phone buzzed, startling the cat, who leapt off him. "That's probably one of the guys calling to tell me that the break's over," Mi-nam said. "I should be getting back."

"And I should be getting back to work. Good luck with the recording."

"And good luck with the writing." He reached down to pet Genghis one last time. "And, uh... if you're still here when we finish, maybe we can give you a ride home? It'll be safer than commuting." Besides, he was curious to see where she lived.

"Maybe."

* * *

A few hours later, in the very early morning, Mi-nam knocked again on the writer's door. Her light was still on, which meant that she was still there, but strangely, there was no answer. Frowning thoughtfully, he again entered the office uninvited, but his frown disappeared when he found Oh-lan lying on her saggy brown couch, fast asleep. Genghis was also sleeping, curled up against her side like a furry gray cushion.

Although she was on the short side, the couch wasn't long enough to let her stretch out comfortably, and her feet, clad only in thick gray socks, stuck out past one arm of the couch. With her glasses off, the intent expression absent from her face and her hair fanning out over the other arm, Oh-lan looked younger and more vulnerable; more like the fairy princess from the fateful night of the party, waiting for true love's first kiss.

"Mi-nam, what's taking so long? Doesn't she want to go?"

Fortunately, it was Shin-woo who had gone to check up on them. He spoke softly, and his voice didn't rouse the writer or her cat from what was probably a well-deserved rest.

"She's asleep," Mi-nam replied needlessly, hoping that his bandmate hadn't caught him staring. "I don't know if I should wake her."

The guitarist glanced at Oh-lan for a moment before shaking his head. "We should probably let her sleep. I'm sure she's very tired and she'll be safe here anyway."

"Yeah," he agreed, then grinned crookedly. "Besides, I bet she'll totally hate me if I interrupted her beauty rest."

Shin-woo grinned back and ruffled the younger boy's hair affectionately. "Yeah, I think you've annoyed her enough today. Come on, let's go."

Mi-nam turned to follow him out of the room, then stopped short. "Wait."

As the guitarist looked on, he picked up Oh-lan's coat from where it was draped over the back of her desk chair, and spread it out over her, even tucking it carefully into her side so that Genghis' head wasn't covered. "OK," he said. "We can go."

* * *

Oh-lan felt only a little better after a couple of hours of sleep, but the thought of finally finishing the draft, going home, taking a shower and staying in bed for the next month dragged her back to her desk.

She felt as though she were back in college, cramming a term paper due the next day. The deadline for the final chapters of the AN JELL book actually was that day. She was reasonably confident that she was going to finish in time — it was getting to that point that was the real challenge.

With "write in white heat, edit in cold blood" as her mantra, Oh-lan's fingers flew over the keyboard as she transformed her disjointed notes and ideas into actual paragraphs and chapters. Occasionally, she went over what she had already written, to show herself how much progress she had made and how the end was so much nearer, but managed to avoid being distracted by revisions.

Her hands trembled as she typed out the final sentence. She read and reread her work several times and, deciding that she had written everything as best as she could, e-mailed it to President Ahn for approval.

Oh-lan leaned back in her chair and took a deep breath after the message was sent. She would need to back up the file, of course, but for all intents and purposes, the book was finished, and the only one present to celebrate this momentous occasion with her was Genghis.

"Well," she murmured as she scooped up her cat, "you're all I really need, anyway."

She gave him a cuddle and, after backing up the file and gathering their things, left word with Secretary Jeung to let her know that she was finished with the book and would be going home for the day.

* * *

The next time Oh-lan returned to AN Entertainment, it was to meet with President Ahn, who considerately gave her a couple of days' rest before scheduling the meeting. Oh-lan hoped that her draft was acceptable; now that she was finished, she couldn't stomach the idea of having to go back and look over all of it again.

She was glad to see that AN JELL's manager was beaming when she entered his office. "Marvelous work, Reporter Park!" he exclaimed, rising from behind his desk and applauding enthusiastically. _"Bingo! Jackpot!"_

"Thank you, President Ahn," Oh-lan replied, too relieved to dwell too much on the silly spouting of English. "I'm very glad that you like it."

"Like it? I love it!" he corrected her. Still smiling, he gestured towards the seating area where their first meeting had taken place and joined her there. "I've given the go-signal to the publisher," he went on. "They'll have two hundred copies of the book ready for the launch, and the rest will follow when we start official retail sales."

"May I reserve two copies?" she asked. "I'd like one for myself, of course, and another for my parents."

"I'll see to it personally," President Ahn promised. He paused, and although the smile didn't disappear from his face, Oh-lan sensed a change in his demeanor. "I really mean it when I said that I loved your work, Reporter Park," he told her in a quieter tone of voice. "You captured AN JELL's new concept and the essence of my boys perfectly."

"I did my best to deliver what I promised," Oh-lan replied, ducking her head modestly even though inside she was thrilled over the praise.

"You really got close to the boys while working on this book, didn't you?"

"Uh, not _that_ close," she clarified, blushing.

He chuckled. "Don't worry, that's not what I meant. Maybe I should have asked you whether you got to know the boys very well while writing the book."

"Oh. Well, I guess I did," she said. "It wasn't just getting the chance to speak with them, but also to see them in action. AN JELL really has something special, President Ahn," she went on. "They all have talent and star quality, but more importantly they work so well together. I hope I was able to do that justice."

"I think you did," President Ahn assured her. "And, Reporter Park... Manager Ma told me about how you helped Mi-nam."

"Oh, that." Oh-lan blushed. She had been annoyed with Mi-nam and his handler, but hadn't expected word of the incident to reach the band's manager's ears. "I probably should have called Manager Ma to let him deal with the situation properly, but I didn't want to risk Mi-nam causing a scene so I went there myself."

"Well, we're all very lucky that you did."

"Anyone else would have done the same thing," she said modestly.

"I suppose, but I just wanted to tell you that I really appreciated your help with that incident. In fact," he went on, "it got me wondering — would you be interested in joining the Public Relations Department here at AN Entertainment?"

Her jaw dropped. "Excuse me?"

"I don't mean that you have to do what you did to help Mi-nam all the time," President Ahn explained. "I just think that you've come to care about the boys' well-being and that, together with your gift with words, would make you an ideal addition to the group. What do you say?"

"I don't know _what_ to say," Oh-lan admitted with a shaky laugh. "I wasn't expecting this at all."

"Well, you don't have to decide right now," he assured her. "I'm sure you're doing very well at your magazine, but wanted to offer you the job. Think about it, all right?"

_

* * *

"Are you sure you won't be back in time to attend the launch party?"_ Jeremy asked his parents as they ate dinner at The Spice, a new gourmet restaurant near Itaewon. He had just finished telling them excitedly about AN JELL's new album and the book. While his mother shared his enthusiasm, his father, as usual, betrayed no emotions.

_"We're sorry, Jeremy, but there are so many people I have to visit in Daejeon,"_ Lady Maitland answered. _"I'm sure the album and the book will be just wonderful; won't they, dear?"_ she asked her husband.

_"Of course they will," _Jeremy's father agreed placidly, taking a sip of wine.

Jeremy smiled at the vote of confidence, even though it hadn't sounded very sincere. _"I'll reserve copies for you,"_ he promised as he cut himself a piece of steak. _"Julia says she wants her own."_ In fact, his younger sister's last e-mail demanded that her book and CD be autographed, with a personal dedication from Tae-kyung — obviously, she still wasn't completely over her preteen crush on the AN JELL vocalist.

_"Oh, yes, please," _his mother said. _"You might not believe it, but Korean music has become popular in Europe. Your cousin Rosemary keeps asking me to teach her Korean so she can understand the lyrics, and she can't wait for you to come and visit again."_

_"Really?"_ Cousin Rosemary was his oldest uncle's daughter. They were only a few years apart in age, but hadn't had much to do with each other while they were growing up. It was funny to think that they finally had something in common after all these years.

_"Maybe her older brother can teach her,"_ Lord Maitland remarked. _"Andrew is a dissertation away from getting his doctorate in linguistics."_

_"I'm not sure if Andrew's qualified to do that, dear," _his wife pointed out gently as she forked up another portion of her salad. _"And I'm perfectly happy to teach Rosemary some phrases."_

_"Well, he's spent years studying languages, so he should know the theory of it all, shouldn't he?"_

Jeremy felt his smile wavering. _"Would you excuse me? I have to go to the restroom."_

He tossed aside his napkin before either of his parents could say anything and quickly left the table. On the way, he managed to smile and nod politely to diners who recognized him, and made it to the men's room in the back of the restaurant before his composure slipped entirely.

It wasn't that he needed to be the center of attention all the time, Jeremy thought as he splashed cold water on his face. He wanted to know how his parents and relatives back in Britain were doing, he really did, and he appreciated his mother's efforts to make him feel good about himself; but would it have hurt his father to show even at least a little interest in Jeremy's accomplishments?

He blotted his face with paper towels and shook his head to clear it. "Stop acting like a baby," he muttered to himself. His parents came all the way to Korea to see him, and he wasn't going to spoil their visit by bringing up old issues.


	14. Can't Take My Eyes Off You

**Disclaimer:** The AN JELL-verse belongs to the Hong sisters, creators of _You're_ _Beautiful_, and the Hotel Spapia to whoever owns it. _Wolf of the Plains_ and _Lords of the Bow_ are novels by Conn Iggulden.

**Technical Notes:** As always, dialogue spoken in English is italicized. I hope they don't look like they're yelling at each other (although Jeremy's mom wishes she could, sometimes).

**Author's Notes:** Thanks to KAZU (dot) BOU and hetalia27 for reviewing. As always, I really appreciate the support :) Happy weekend, everyone!

_

* * *

Chapter Fourteen — Can't Take My Eyes Off You (Frankie Valli)_

_Portrait of the Artists_, both the album and the book, were launched on a snowy, mid-December night in the same event hall where Sung Bo-dae's party had taken place.

"Omo!" Oh-lan's mother exclaimed as she entered the large room with her husband and daughter. "Will you look at this place?"

No expense had been spared to ensure that the launch was a success. A large bar had been set up on either side of the space, manned by uniformed bartenders who were busily arranging bottles and polishing glasses. The bars flanked a stage that loomed in the back of the room. Crew members were setting up rows of chairs before the stage, but since it was currently empty, Oh-lan couldn't tell whether the stage was for an AN JELL performance or a press conference. All throughout the venue, strategically placed spotlights illuminated giant banners depicting the band, the album cover and...

"Oh-lan, look!" Professor Park said, pointing. "It's your book!"

"And your name is right there," his wife added, squeezing her daughter's arm. "Isn't that exciting?"

Oh-lan nodded, unable to keep a proud smile from appearing on her face. It was a picture of the book's front cover rather than the genuine article, but it was still a thrill to see it and the author's name printed on the front, fluttering boldly on a banner, a hundred times larger than life.

A familiar plump figure entered the room as Oh-lan's parents were busy taking pictures of the author with the banner depicting her first published work. "Reporter Park, you're here!" Manager Ma greeted her, coming briskly forward. Like Oh-lan's father, he was dressed in a smart dark suit and tie. The ladies were wearing cocktail dresses under their coats.

Blushing at having been caught doing something so embarrassing, Oh-lan gave AN JELL's handler a polite smile and bow. "Hello, Manager Ma," she answered. "May I introduce my parents? They're my guests this evening."

Manager Ma exchanged greetings with Oh-lan's parents, who gave their compliments on the decorations. "Everything looks wonderful," Professor Han said.

"Thank you," the plump man replied with a smile. "All the staff has worked very hard to put this event together, and we're very excited to have it finally happen. But first," he added, "you must come with me to the back. You can relax and have something to eat with the rest of the VIPs before the start of the event, and you can leave your coats there, too."

* * *

Manager Ma led them to a brightly lit back room where AN JELL and assorted members of their entourage milled around, helping themselves to food and drinks from a pair of buffet tables set up in the back. Oh-lan and her parents were putting away their coats when there was an ear-splitting shriek.

Stylist Wang descended on Oh-lan like a spangled tornado. "Ohhhh Reporter Park, you look absolutely amazing!" she squealed, grabbing her by the arms and shaking her excitedly. "I almost didn't recognize you!"

"Thanks." Oh-lan blushed and pressed a finger to the bridge of her nose, forgetting for a moment that she was wearing contact lenses instead of eyeglasses that night. "I think."

The taller woman inspected Oh-lan's red dress with a practiced eye. "We didn't buy this dress together," she recalled. "Did you get it on your own?"

"Actually, my mother helped me pick it out." She gestured towards her parents, who were standing by and observing the proceedings with interest. "These are my parents, Professor Park and Professor Han. Appa, Omma, this is Stylist Wang. She's in charge of the style concepts for AN JELL."

"Nice to meet you," Oh-lan's father said politely.

"Oh, same here!" Stylist Wang chirped. "Your daughter's really cool! It's been great working with her!"

"I interviewed the staff as well as the band for the book," Oh-lan explained to her parents. "And I observed the band at work doing various things, so I got to see how everyone worked together."

That made it easy for her to introduce them to the others in the room, from the lowliest assistants all the way to President Ahn himself. She even introduced them to her "friends," Mi-nyeo, Ha-neul and Su-jin, who were of course there to cheer on the band in their latest achievement.

Oh-lan and her parents were helping themselves to the buffet when Mi-nam walked up to her carrying two flutes of champagne. "Reporter Park," he gasped with exaggerated surprise, "is that you?"

Since her parents were standing behind her, Oh-lan was able to make a face at him. "Hi, Go Mi-nam."

He chuckled and gave her a smile. "You look great."

She felt her face grow warm at the sincerity in his tone, but kept her voice coolly polite. "Thanks."

"Really, you do," he said, and held out one of the glasses to her. "Champagne?"

She considered the offer before accepting with a shrug. Taking the offered glass, she passed it to her mother. Then, she took the other one Mi-nam carried and gave it to her father. "Thanks."

The wine had been for him and Oh-lan, but Mi-nam was nothing if not opportunistic, and he gave the older couple standing behind her his most charming smile. "Are these your parents?" he guessed.

She supposed that it would be totally rude not to make introductions now that they were aware of each other's presence. "My father, Professor Park Chung-il, and my mother, Professor Han Yang-gae," she said. "Appa, Omma, this is Go Mi-nam, a member of AN JELL."

"Ah, one of the guests of honor," her father observed, nodding to Mi-nam. "Congratulations on your new album."

"Thank you, sir," he replied. "It's a pleasure to finally meet you both. I remember Reporter Park mentioning you a few times. Forgive me for forgetting, but which one of you teaches Asian history?"

"That would be me," Professor Han said with a small smile.

Mi-nam gave her a small bow. "Then I guess I should thank you, ma'am, for leading me to read more about the life of Genghis Khan."

"Oh, really?"

He nodded earnestly. "Reporter Park told us a little about what inspired her name, and she recommended that I read this book called _Wolf of the Plains_."

"That was a good one," the older woman said approvingly. "The author took certain liberties with historical facts, but he accounted for them, and it's a very engaging read."

"I found it riveting," her husband agreed.

"I couldn't put it down," Mi-nam told them. "I liked it so much that I bought the rest of the series."

"You did?" Oh-lan asked, her brows rising skeptically.

He met the challenge with a lofty glance. "I'm finishing _Lords of the Bow_ right now, and I'm quite looking forward to finishing the trilogy."

"I've been meaning to finish the last book," Professor Park said, "but I've been so busy. I love to read, but sometimes you just get so tired of it when you do so much reading for work. You must tell me what you think when you're done."

The younger man grinned. "I'd be happy to."

They chatted pleasantly for a while until Mi-nam was called away with the rest of AN JELL to change into their outfits for the launch. "What a nice young man," Professor Han remarked when he had gone. "A bit too much of a smooth talker, though."

_You have no idea,_ her daughter thought dryly.

"He'll grow out of it," Professor Park said. "I was a little like that when I was his age."

"Yobo, you were more than 'a little like that,'" his wife teased. "In fact, you taught me all I know about dealing with smooth talkers."

"The best way to deal with them," he replied wisely, "is to marry them."

_I don't think so,_ Oh-lan wanted to say, but she refused to let her thoughts linger in that direction. "Come," she said briskly, "let's find a place to sit. The event is supposed to begin in half an hour."

* * *

People lost no time pouring into the main event room when the doors were finally opened. Apart from the media, who turned out in full force to cover the event, and AN Entertainment's guests, a lucky group of fans were there to experience the excitement firsthand.

"Aren't we lucky that we won that contest?" enthused one chubby girl who regularly hung around outside the AN Entertainment offices dressed in full fan club regalia.

"I think it was partly luck, Ae-sook," her friend pointed out, laughing, "and partly because we sent text messages for the contest every hour for a month."

"Well, that doesn't matter now," a third girl, clearly the leader of the little group, declared. "The important thing is that we're here to support our oppas and represent our fellow fan club members!"

Everyone was excited to hear more of AN JELL's newest work. Apart from the two singles released during the summer, the rest of the album had been tightly guarded to prevent any leaks. That, and the publication of a book offering a serious inside look at the band and its creative process, gave the impression that AN JELL was poised to take a new and more mature direction in their music.

Unfortunately for them, President Ahn knew how to put on a show, and prolonged the suspense for as long as humanly possible. "Does he _really_ have to thank each and every person who's here?" Ae-sook complained. She knew that the man onstage was AN JELL's manager, but she really didn't care that everyone from _Inside Showbiz_ magazine was there.

"Ssshhhh!" hissed the third girl, whose name was Sayuri. "Of course he does. There are lots of important people here. Now, stop fidgeting. What will people think of the AN JELL fan club if they see you acting like a baby?"

To their relief, President Ahn's speech eventually came to an end and the girls cheered loudly as their idols were finally introduced, looking sharp in their punk- and hip-hop-inspired "urban artist" outfits. They didn't seem to be getting ready to give a performance despite the musical instruments that were waiting onstage, but at least the band was now standing before them, live and in person.

"I wonder who those flowers are for?" mused sharp-eyed Sayuri, peering at the large bouquet that Jeremy carried.

The girls didn't wait long to find out. "There's one more person I would like to call onstage," President Ahn said then. "The author of the companion volume to the new album, Reporter Park Oh-lan of _Inside Showbiz _magazine, could you join us, please?"

"Omo! It's that girl who interviewed us!" Ae-sook recalled as a small figure emerged shyly from the crowd, her cheeks as red as her dress.

"She took our names and everything!" Sayuri squealed, hopping around in excitement. "Maybe we're mentioned in the book!"

"She's my idol," Hyun-jae, the last member of the trio, sighed worshipfully. "Do you think she'll let us interview her for the fan club newsletter?"

* * *

Oh-lan tried not to trip on her high heels as she ascended the steps to the stage in a firestorm of flashbulbs and applause. She managed to wave at her parents standing to one side, beaming proudly and snapping pictures, and grin at the _Inside Showbiz_ staff, who formed her personal cheering section in the audience.

President Ahn beamed at her before turning to address the crowd once again. "Reporter Park has worked very hard in the background, chronicling the making of this milestone album," he said. "AN Entertainment would like to take this opportunity to thank her for her excellent work. We're all very excited to share it with you tonight."

He led everyone in a round of applause as the members of AN JELL came forward to give Oh-lan the flowers. "Thanks for writing the book, Reporter Park!" Jeremy said. "It's great!"

"We're very grateful for everything you've done for us, noona," Shin-woo added, glancing over to where her "friends" stood, clapping enthusiastically. "It means a lot."

"I'm also grateful that they got flowers that I'm not allergic to," Tae-kyung remarked.

She laughed, her nervousness easing at the joke. "We definitely can't have you sneezing and with red eyes on your big night," she said.

"That's not all we have for you — there's this, too." Mi-nam held out a rectangular package and winked. "Congratulations."

Her breath caught, but it wasn't from the wink; rather, it was from the realization that she held two copies of her book. She knew every word of it by heart and had even seen the proofs before the book was printed, but that didn't compare to actually holding the finished product in her hands. It felt like holding a newborn baby for the first time.

_"Over here, Oh-lan noona!"_ a familiar voice cried. Oh-lan looked up to see In-jung waving at her. She waved back and, seeing that he was holding up his camera, started to move aside so that he could take pictures of AN JELL, but the band was having none of it. Turning on the smiles, they crowded around her, keeping her in the middle, so that the press could have a picture of the band and the author of their book.

It looked like she was going to have her turn in the spotlight, whether she wanted it or not.

_

* * *

"Will you look at this, darling?"_ Lady Maitland said to her husband. They were having dinner in the Hotel Spapia in Daejeon when Jeremy sent his mother a picture of the crowd at AN JELL's book and album launch. _"There are so many people at the event!"_

He looked up from his oxtail soup to glance at the picture, and nodded. _"Quite a crush," _he agreed mildly. _"We might have been lost in the crowd if we'd gone."_

_"I know AN JELL is a really big deal here," _his wife said as she put her cellphone away, _"but I had no idea they were this popular! They're practically Korea's version of The Beatles!"_

_"The Beatles are in another class altogether,"_ Lord Maitland said, feeling the need to defend his countrymen's position in musical history. _"Time will tell whether Jeremy's band is made of the same stuff."_

_"All right, musically speaking, they still have some way to go; but look at how people don't stop going crazy over them. That's something special, considering that there are so many bands these days."_

_"Every time you turn around, there's a new one,"_ he said dryly. _"You can hardly tell them apart anymore."_

_"So, isn't it impressive that AN JELL has managed to stay popular all these years?"_ Lady Maitland pressed, and sighed when her husband said nothing. _"James, would it kill you to say one nice thing about your son once in a while?"_

_"I don't think so, but Jeremy might die of shock."_ He put down his spoon when she shot him a withering look. _"Look, Hea-jung, you know we had that blazing argument when he got bounced out of Glenmuir, but I didn't stop him when he decided to move to Korea, did I? And I didn't come after him and force him to return home where he belongs. He's been knocking himself out trying to show me that he's happy here. I get the message."_

_"He'd be happier if he had your approval."_

Lord Maitland's expression shuttered. _"I still don't approve of his decision to leave us,"_ he said, _"but I've come to terms with it. That should be enough."_

_"You might think so," _she replied tightly, _"but it's not. Jeremy's not a little boy anymore, James. Maybe you still see him as he was when he left, and in the back of your mind you believe that he'll come home to us any minute now with his tail between his legs, but he grew up while he was away from us. He's a fine young man now, and he's doing very well for himself; and if you keep pushing him away, the only way we'll be able to keep in touch with him is by reading about him in the newspapers."_

As much as Lady Maitland loved being back in her home country and seeing her son again, she was sick of being the buffer between him and her husband whenever they were together. She put down her fork, her appetite gone, and got to her feet. _"And if he marries that nice girl and I never get to see my grandchildren because they won't take them to see us, I'll never forgive you!"_

She flung down her napkin and strode away, leaving her husband staring pensively after her.

* * *

Oh-lan was still a little dazed after the formal program was over and those in attendance were free to mingle and enjoy the bounties of the open bar. "You were a natural up there," one of the _Inside Showbiz_ managing editors told her as the staff gathered at one bar, toasting Oh-lan's success.

"Thank you, sunbae," she replied, blushing. After being presented with flowers and copies of her book, President Ahn requested her to stay onstage for the press conference. She had managed intelligent, diplomatic answers for the few questions that were directed at her, even slipping in a nice plug for _Inside Showbiz_, but was glad to finally get off the stage when it was time for AN JELL to close the event by performing a few songs from the new album.

"I got some great pictures!" In-jung said enthusiastically. "I think your dress is going to come out really well."

"You'll sign my copy of the book, right?" Jung-ah asked.

She smiled at her friend. "Of course."

Even Soon-ok clinked his glass with hers. "Enjoy your success," he advised. "As you know, it can be fleeting."

Oh-lan gave him a polite little smile. "I think that's something we should all keep in mind, Reporter Kim."

She braced herself for more of the senior reporter's pointed remarks, but fortunately they were interrupted by someone shouldering his way through the crowd. "Excuse me!" Mi-nam said as he popped up between In-jung and one of the layout artists. "Do you guys mind if I borrow the reporter noona for a moment? She has a photo call."

"I do?" Oh-lan asked as the others started hooting derisively and teasing her about being a big star now.

The AN JELL keyboardist nodded. "It's for our website," he said.

Her eyes narrowed suspiciously. The earnestness in his voice and expression might have fooled other people, but not her. However, she couldn't very well call him a liar in front of everybody; and even if she wanted to, there was no time to do so because he grabbed her arm and hustled her from the group before anyone could react.

Mi-nam led her to the back rooms where she had grabbed a quick bite with her parents before the start of the event. Not surprisingly, the room into which he pushed her was empty.

"What do you want?" Oh-lan asked as he closed the door. Naturally, being alone with him and far away from the party gave her a number of disturbing ideas, but she discarded them all. Someone like Go Mi-nam would never do any of those things to _her_, of all people.

"Two things," he answered. "First, I want you to tell me why you brought your parents tonight and not that professor guy you're seeing."

She blushed despite her best efforts. "Of course my parents have to be here. This is an important night. And why would I want to bring Professor Chin here?"

He arched an eyebrow. "Aren't you dating him?"

"Not really," she said with a shrug. "We're friends, but not close enough for me to want him to be here."

"Really?"

Oh-lan nodded, wondering why he seemed inordinately pleased by the information. Then, supposing that the first "thing" was taken care of, she asked, "So, what's the second thing?"

"The second thing is that you have to sign my copy of the book," Mi-nam replied, holding out the book he had been carrying in his other hand.

He grinned as her lips curved in a shy smile at the prospect. "If I had known that you wanted my autograph, I would asked my mother for my copy so you could sign it, too."

"You can bring it by anytime so that everyone in AN JELL can sign it. The guards at the office know you, anyway. Will you sign mine?"

"OK." Blushing, Oh-lan took a pen from her little black bag and bowed her head over the book to sign the first page.

The motion made her hair tumble around her face in loose waves, and Mi-nam reached out impulsively to tuck some behind her ear so that she could see what she was doing. He vaguely remembered touching her hair once — or had it been a dream? No, he was sure he had done it before because he could never have just dreamed up the softness beneath his fingertips.

She thanked him without looking up from her writing. "You know, I've promised a lot of people that I would autograph their books for them, but this is the first one I've actually signed."

"I guess I should be honored," he said, smiling and accepting his now-signed book from her. "And I guess this means that you're not working for AN Entertainment anymore."

"Actually—" Oh-lan began, but that was all she managed to say before Mi-nam gathered her in his arms and his mouth closed over hers.

She had been kissed before, but only a few times in her life and the last one had been so long ago that she froze in surprise for a moment, not understanding what was going on and not knowing what to do. Fortunately, her feminine instincts quickly took over.

Mi-nam braced himself for a shove or, even worse, a slap; but to his surprise, she drew him closer and her lips, which were as sweet as he had imagined, softened deliciously beneath his own.

OK, she managed to think, so she was wrong about one of the ideas that had crossed her mind.

"I thought you said two things," Oh-lan said, sounding a bit breathless, when he finally released her.

"That was part of the second thing."

"I think that should have been a whole separate thing instead of just part of the second."

Mi-nam gave her a crooked grin. "Mother Superior always said that I was hopeless at math."

* * *

Predictably, AN JELL became the biggest story in the country following the launch, second only to the escalating tensions with North Korea. The mainstream outlets ran extensive coverage of the book and album launching, and reviewers were busy trying to think of innovative ways to describe the band's genius.

The madness escalated a week or so later, when _Inside Showbiz_ ran a cover story revealing that Jeremy, the band's boyishly handsome, happy-go-lucky drummer, had a secret girlfriend.


	15. Buses and Trains

**Disclaimer:** The AN JELL-verse belongs to the Hong sisters, creators of _You're_ _Beautiful_.

**Author's Notes:** Thanks to Luminous Circus (have you done your homework? LOL) and KAZU (dot) BOU for reviewing! :)

_

* * *

Chapter Fifteen — Buses and Trains (Bachelor Girl)_

"I don't believe it!" Ae-sook declared, flinging aside a much-abused copy of _Inside Showbiz_. She and her fellow officers of the AN JELL fan club were sitting in an ice cream parlor not far from AN Entertainment, trying and failing to drown their sorrows in triple-scoop strawberry sundaes. All around them, groups of fans were huddled over their own ice cream in various degrees of shock and sadness.

"I'm sorry, Ae-sook," Hyun-jae told her gently as she retrieved the magazine, "but it looks like it's true. Look, she's been seen at lots of events that AN JELL attended — the album launching last week... Sung Bo-dae's party... this charity event for some kids' foundation... even the launch of their first video last summer. Obviously, they've been dating for some time now."

Sayuri nodded sadly. She had spent the day poring over the photos in the article, hoping against hope that it was all just a terrible mistake, but her keen powers of observation told her the sad truth. "Her face is blurred out, but it looks like it's the same girl in all the pictures."

"Maybe she's just close to someone at AN Entertainment!" Ae-sook said. "Maybe her mom or—or her boyfriend works there and she's a big fan, so he gets her tickets to all the official events!"

The fan club president pointed to the picture that destroyed Ae-sook's theory, which showed Jeremy and the mystery woman walking hand-in-hand down a quiet city street. "That doesn't look like an official event."

The chubby girl buried her face in her hands with a dramatic sob. "I guess we should be happy that Jeremy oppa has found someone, but I wish they hadn't blurred out her face so I could tell if she's prettier than me."

* * *

Su-jin, on the other hand, was vastly relieved that her face wasn't seen in any of the pictures. She was also glad that there weren't any of her and Ha-neul together — she had always moved aside when someone asked to take pictures of her model friend, and Ha-neul had probably blocked the photographers' view of her in any candid shots. There were benefits to being shorter and less famous than Ha-neul, after all.

Nevertheless, she had to listen to her co-workers speculating on the secret girlfriend's identity. "It can't be a celebrity," one of the other analysts said at lunch that day, "because the magazine would have shown her face and it would be all over the news that Jeremy and So-and-So are dating, like Hwang Tae-kyung and Yoo Heyi last year."

"Yeah, it's got to be someone who's not in showbiz," the office receptionist agreed. "Which means there's hope for working stiffs like us. What do you think, Su-jin?"

She looked up, startled, from her lasagna. "What?"

"We were asking who you think Jeremy's secret girlfriend might be."

"Why would I care about something like that?" she asked, frowning and hoping that she didn't look guilty or otherwise give any hint that she had anything to do with the girl in the pictures. (In a stroke of luck, she was wearing her hair in a small bun that day. She prayed that they didn't remember that she had curly hair like quite a few of those pictures, and vowed to get a haircut as soon as possible.)

"Well, aren't you an AN JELL fan, too?" another analyst replied.

"Yes, but I just admire them for their music." Su-jin nodded decisively. "I know they're celebrities and everything, but they're people, too. Don't you think they're entitled to their personal privacy?" She certainly did.

"No," the first analyst laughed as she ate a French fry. "I just love gossip."

The conversation was interrupted by the ringing of Su-jin's cell phone. Her eyes widened when she saw that it was Jeremy calling. "Um, excuse me," she said, clutching the phone to her chest and getting to her feet. "I really have to take this call."

"Who the hell dares to call during lunch break?" one of the girls from Human Resources said with a disapproving frown.

"I-it's my mom!" she improvised hastily. "This might be an emergency. I'll be right back!"

Since it was cold outside and there hadn't been any time to grab her coat, Su-jin hid in the women's bathroom to answer Jeremy's call.

He was beside himself when she finally picked up. "Are you OK? Why did you take so long to answer?"

"I'm in the middle of having lunch with my officemates," she answered in a low voice as she locked herself inside a stall. "I had to make up an excuse to get away!"

"Oh. That's all right, then," he said, mollified. "Well, are you OK? Is anyone chasing you or anything?"

"No," she assured him. "No one I know has recognized me... so far."

"Good."

"I'm a little scared, though," Su-jin admitted in a small voice.

"Me, too," he said. "But don't worry, we're all in this together — you, me and the guys. We're having a meeting at the house later to talk about things. You should come right after your finish work."

She had been planning to get that haircut after work, but this was more important. Besides, she could always hide her hair in a braid tomorrow. "I'll be there," she promised.

* * *

Su-jin left the office at five-thirty on the dot, pleading a headache that, to be fair, truly existed and had been building all afternoon. Maybe, she thought as she drove to the AN JELL mansion just south of Seoul, instead of wearing her hair in a braid, she could just call in sick tomorrow.

Even though she didn't want to face Jeremy or his bandmates, she had no choice but to enter the house. Not only was it cold, but there was also the danger that the place was being watched and she had no way to hide her identity. She found herself wishing that she had one of Jeremy's disguises, even the stupid-looking ones, on hand, but had to settle for drawing up the hood of her coat to hide her face.

Shin-woo answered the door just moments after she rang the doorbell. "Hi, Su-jin," he greeted her, but instead of his usual calm, friendly smile, he wore a troubled expression. "Come in."

All the members of the band were in the living room when she entered the house. Mi-nam waved at her from the couch, where he and his sister sat with Tae-kyung, who was scowling over a magazine. Shin-woo walked towards the kitchen, passing Jeremy, who was pacing around with his cell phone pressed to his ear and Jolie at his heels.

Su-jin could tell from the formal tone in his voice and the fact that he was speaking in English that the redheaded boy was speaking with his father. Although he sounded calm, his free hand was clenched and his hair stood up in uneven clumps, not because it was styled that way but because he seemed to have run his fingers through it repeatedly.

He caught sight of Su-jin then and reached out to take her hand, drawing her to his side and pressing a kiss to her forehead. She blushed but didn't argue, supposing that having her near made him feel better. To her relief, Jeremy relaxed soon after and started speaking in Korean, which meant that his mother had come on the line.

"We're OK, Mum," he assured her. "We're still trying to figure out how this happened before we do anything. I'm positive no one who knows has spoken to the press."

Su-jin patted Jolie and pointed to the phone. "If that's your mother, could I speak with her?" she asked.

Jeremy looked surprised at that, but he nodded. "Mum, Su-jin just got here and she says she wants to talk to you," he said into the phone, then listened for a few moments. "OK... hang on a minute—here she is."

She managed to smile at him before lifting the phone to her ear. "Hello, Mrs.—I mean, Lady Maitland?"

"Su-jin, my dear, how are you?" the older woman asked, sounding quite calm considering that her son had just found himself embroiled in a scandal. "Are you all right?"

"I'm fine," she replied. "I, um, just wanted to let you know that it wasn't me who said anything. Even my own parents don't know that I'm seeing Jeremy."

"Of course it wasn't you, dear," Lady Maitland said. "No one thinks that you did it. If it had been you, you would have told the press everything, wouldn't you?"

"I suppose, if I wanted that kind of attention," Su-jin agreed, "but I don't. If I want people to know who I am, it won't be because I'm dating someone."

"That's the right attitude to have. But, Su-jin, I imagine things are going to become rather difficult for you and Jeremy. Do you still remember the promise you made to me when we had tea together at the hotel?"

Blushing, she glanced up at Jeremy and squeezed his hand. "Yes."

"Do you plan to keep it?"

"Yes," she repeated, nodding even though Jeremy's mother couldn't see it.

"I'm glad. Then I'm sure everything will turn out just fine in the end."

"I hope so. Anyway, um, that's it. I just wanted to tell you that."

"Well, I really appreciate that you did. Jeremy's father and I will be back soon and we'll see what we can do to help. May I speak with my son again, please?"

* * *

Shin-woo threw together some tea and snacks, and everyone was sitting around in the kitchen eating when the doorbell rang. At first, Su-jin thought the newcomer was a strange boy, but when he kicked off a familiar pair of sneakers, she realized that it was Ha-neul, her slender figure hidden in baggy clothing.

"I'm sorry I'm late," she called out as she yanked off her knit hat, revealing a sloppy bun barely held up by a clip, and stuffed it in the pocket of her bulky parka. "I had to go home and change after my photo shoot. Have I missed anything important?"

"Just some pretty awful cookies," Shin-woo answered, helping his girlfriend with her coat.

"If they were so awful, why did you eat them?"

"We were hungry."

Laughing, Ha-neul gave him a hug and then peered over his shoulder at Su-jin. "Are you OK?" she asked her friend.

"OK so far," Su-jin replied, "even though I think I'm going to have to get a haircut." She would have gone to hug her best friend, but Jeremy hadn't relinquished her hand since she arrived and neither of them seemed inclined to let go. "I can't believe I'm glad to see you wearing those things out of the house."

"You'll probably have to start wearing clothes like this, too," the other girl joked, walking into the kitchen and taking a place at the table after saying hello to everyone else who was there.

"Now that Ha-neul is here," Tae-kyung said, "let's start the meeting."

"I actually thought of something that might help on the way here," Ha-neul announced. "Maybe we could say that Su-jin is _my_ girlfriend!"

"Excuse me?" Shin-woo asked mildly.

"No one knows about the two of us, anyway," she told him, shrugging. "And it would also explain any pictures that might come up of me and Su-jin together. We can say that the only reason she's at all those events is because my dad and I have contacts with Uncle Sung-chan."

"But there's that picture of her and Jeremy holding hands," Mi-nyeo pointed out.

"Yeah, I'm still trying to figure out an explanation for that," Ha-neul admitted sheepishly.

The mention of that picture made Tae-kyung scowl. "Why didn't you wear a disguise that day, Jeremy?" he scolded.

The drummer blushed. "Sorry, hyung. We hadn't really planned to go there — it was right after we dropped my parents off at their hotel, the night we had dinner here. You know I was feeling really bad that day and I guess I wasn't thinking."

"Never mind that," Shin-woo interjected. "What's done is done."

Tae-kyung grunted, but got back to business. "Anyway, what we have to do now is think of what to do about the scandal and maybe figure out how the news got leaked, to see if there's any danger of more information coming out."

"I think it's obvious what we should do," Su-jin told them quietly. "Jeremy and I have to stop seeing each other—"

_"No!"_ he shouted.

She gave him a sad look, but went on as though he hadn't said anything. "Maybe we can say it was just a casual thing that just happened to have ended. If I'm not around, there won't be a scandal anymore, right?"

"I said no!" Jeremy repeated vehemently, tugging on the hand that he was still holding for emphasis. "I'm not letting you go that easily! You got me in trouble, and you're going to have to take responsibility for me!"

Mi-nam had to laugh at that. "If Jeremy was pregnant, then that would totally overshadow this secret girlfriend scandal thing," he said, but his grin quickly faded when he caught severe looks from quite a few directions. "Sorry."

"You know what I mean," the drummer grumbled.

"Well, I can't think of anything else to do," Su-jin told him. "If I went to the press and told them it wasn't true, would they believe me?"

"Su-jin can't go public," Ha-neul declared. "If your fans or anti-fans or whoever find out who she is, it could be dangerous, even if she tells everyone that she and Jeremy aren't really dating."

Tae-kyung shook his head. "Yes, as much as possible, it shouldn't have to come to that. Personally, I think the two of them breaking up sounds like the best option—but I know Jeremy doesn't agree to that," he added quickly, before the redheaded boy could say anything.

"Let's just keep these ideas in mind for now," Shin-woo suggested. "We'll definitely have to talk to President Ahn and the PR people at the agency because AN JELL might have to come out with an official statement or something. If not, then at least they'll have more ideas on what to do."

There were nods all around. Everyone seemed relieved that they didn't have to decide on what to do just yet. Jeremy glared at Su-jin, probably because she had brought up breaking up with him, and she glared back because she hadn't heard any of his ideas, but their hands remained joined.

"Then I suppose we can move on to the next thing on our agenda," Tae-kyung said then. "Who do you think leaked this information?"

Shin-woo looked at the people gathered around the table. "I think it's safe to say that none of us would ever betray Jeremy and Su-jin. We don't benefit from it."

"In fact, it would make things more dangerous for everyone else," Ha-neul added, looking down at her empty teacup.

"And I guess we can be sure that President Ahn, Manager Ma and anyone at AN Entertainment who might know won't tell, either," Mi-nyeo chimed in.

Tae-kyung nodded his agreement. "No one at the company would ever want AN JELL to lose fans again, like they did last year." A sneer of distaste crossed his face. "You know, with the whole pretend-girlfriend thing."

Suddenly, Mi-nam sat bolt upright in his chair. As far as he knew, none of the regular employees at AN Entertainment knew about Jeremy and Su-jin's relationship, except perhaps Manager Ma, and his twin was right, Manager Ma would die to protect AN JELL. However, there was one person in the building who was definitely in on the secret.

"I think I know who did this," he said tightly.

* * *

Mi-nam stormed into Oh-lan's office at AN Entertainment the very next day. He hadn't seen her since the launch, and his heart wrenched when she looked up from packing some things in a box and smiled shyly at the sight of him, but he told himself that he had to be strong. He wasn't going to fall for that again.

"It was you, wasn't it?" he demanded. "You told your friends at the magazine about Jeremy and Su-jin."

Oh-lan's jaw dropped, along with the pencil holder in her hand. The cup tipped on its side, scattering pens and pencils across the surface of her desk. "What? What are you talking about?"

"Don't act like you don't know. It was on the cover of _Inside Showbiz_ yesterday. Jeremy and his secret girlfriend."

He folded his arms and watched as she opened her laptop and quickly went to the _Inside Showbiz_ website. She paled, looking horrified, when she saw what was splashed across the homepage. "I would never—how could I—"

"Why didn't you tell them everything?" Mi-nam snapped. He remembered her covering for the girls and telling her co-worker that they were her friends, and felt a fresh wave of anger. Mi-nyeo, Ha-neul and Su-jin all insisted that Oh-lan would never betray them, but he knew better. "You know the public is just dying to know. Or are you publishing the information little by little to sell more magazines?"

She flushed angrily. "I didn't tell anyone anything," she replied. "You trusted me—"

"That's exactly the problem," he cut her off, drawing a shaky breath as his hurt and outrage threatened to choke him. "We trusted you, and you stabbed all of us in the back. I guess it would have been OK if you had just said Jeremy was dating _someone_, because we're celebrities and we're used to it; but to involve a private citizen, well, that's just low."

"I told you it wasn't me!" Oh-lan cried, stamping her foot. "I wish I knew how they found out about Jeremy and Su-jin so we can put a stop to it, but I don't! But I swear to you," she went on, "I'll ask them, I'll find out who's behind the story."

"Thanks, but no thanks," he spat. "The damage has been done. Su-jin's scared to go out of her house, and she and Jeremy are probably going to break up. I hope you're proud of yourself."

_"I said I didn't do it!"_ she screamed, pounding her fist on the table and sending a few pencils flying. An angry tear slid down her cheek. "Why won't you listen to me?"

"You should have been an actress," Mi-nam told her dispassionately. "You're much better at pretending than I ever was. Tell me, did you want to get revenge on me so badly that you decided to take all my friends down with me?"

Oh-lan gasped, going from weepy to outraged in moments. "I can't believe you think that this is somehow all about you! If I had wanted to get revenge on you for lying to me, then I would have just kicked you in the groin or something like that; but I didn't, did I?

"Petty things like that aren't worth my time," she told him, her voice trembling just the slightest bit. "And the same goes for petty people like you."

For some reason, her dismissal of him hurt more than the initial betrayal, but Mi-nam raised his chin and fought to keep any emotion from showing on his face. "Well, I guess we're even now," he said flatly. "And that means we don't have to have anything to do with each other."


	16. If That's What It Takes

**Disclaimer:** The AN JELL-verse belongs to the Hong sisters, creators of _You're_ _Beautiful_.

**Author's Notes:** Thanks to piggyrabbit, Luminous Circus (do your homework first! ^_^) and KAZU (dot) BOU for reviewing! Have a happy weekend, everyone! :)

_

* * *

Chapter Sixteen — If That's What It Takes (Mr. Big)_

After Mi-nam left her office, Oh-lan took a moment to compose herself and went straight to President Ahn. He was on the phone when Secretary Jeung ushered her into the office and he held up a finger to let her know that he would be with her shortly. Oh-lan nodded to show that she understood, thanked the secretary and perched on a visitor's chair to wait until AN JELL's manager became available.

The call ended not long after her arrival and President Ahn hung up with a sober expression. "I think I know what this is about," he said to her.

She nodded urgently. "I just heard about what happened to Jeremy," she replied, "and I came to assure you that I didn't leak that story to _Inside Showbiz_." She clasped her hands tightly in her lap, hoping that he would believe her. "I know it looks bad because I've been covering AN JELL these past few months and I have connections at the magazine, but I swear, I would never betray the band or this company just for a scoop.

"Besides," she went on, "why would I do something that will put me in conflict with my new employers?"

The strongest argument in her defense, and the one that Mi-nam had refused to hear, was that Oh-lan had accepted President Ahn's offer of a job with AN Entertainment's Public Relations Department. She had already informed the magazine of her intent to resign.

He held out a hand in a steadying gesture. "It's all right, Reporter Park. I trust that you aren't the type to do such a thing."

"I'm n-not," Oh-lan agreed vehemently, her voice growing thick. "You know I w-want to help AN JELL keep a good public image. I would never do that." To her mortification, some of the tears she had refused to shed in front of Mi-nam spilled over. She dashed them away, annoyed at herself for losing control.

"Please, there's no need to be so upset," President Ahn told her, sounding a little nervous now that he was confronted with a crying female. "Editor Park and I are working together to get to the bottom of this. He says that he didn't clear that article for publication, and it was slipped into the issue at the last minute."

"That's not supposed to happen," she said, sniffling, "but then I guess he has been very busy lately..."

"That's what he told me," he confirmed with an understanding nod. "Editor Park was also very quick to assure me that you had nothing to do with it. He swore to me that you're an honest person and a true professional. Sensationalist articles are not your style."

"They're not." She dabbed at her eyes with her sleeve. "Thank you for believing in me," she said, her voice steadier now. It was good to know that her uncle had immediately vouched for her and her new boss seemed to believe him. "It makes me feel much better.

"Unfortunately, we're still facing the problem of the scandal," Oh-lan went on. "I know that I'm technically still employed by _Inside Showbiz_, but maybe there's something I can do...?"

"There's nothing I need you to do right now," he replied. "I'm going to talk to the boys today about how to address this issue. We'll see what needs to be done once we decide."

She nodded eagerly. "Still, if there's anything you need me to do, please let me know. I really had nothing to do with it, but I'll feel better if I were doing something to help."

"Thank you, Reporter Park." President Ahn gave her a small smile. "I wouldn't be surprised if your first assignment as part of my PR team will be to deal with this mess."

* * *

After a long discussion, AN JELL, their manager and the AN Entertainment PR team agreed that the band would hold a press conference to give their official statement on the scandal. Although the event was organized on short notice and scheduled to take place on a weekend, no less, members of the press and media outlets were more than happy to accommodate AN Entertainment's request for coverage.

"I think three channels are airing it live," Ha-neul said as she and Su-jin bustled about the Sos' kitchen, getting drinks and snacks for the group of chattering former teammates in the living room. Catching the mention of the foundation event, Kyung-soon had asked to know the truth. Su-jin had been reluctant to admit to the older girl that she and Jeremy were dating, but knew that she could trust her teammates to keep quiet for her sake. "It's being streamed online, too."

"I don't want to go online," her friend replied. "I'm scared to see what fans might be saying about me."

"Did Jeremy tell you anything about what he's going to say?"

"No. How about you? Did Shin-woo say anything?"

"No." Su-jin thought that Ha-neul's expression clouded slightly at the mention of her boyfriend, but supposed that she had just been imagining it when her friend smiled at her. "Nice haircut."

She patted the short, spiky cut self-consciously. She hadn't wanted to lose the curls, but told herself that it was just hair; it would grow back. "I look like a dumpling."

"Oh, please. You couldn't look like a dumpling if you tried."

Su-jin managed a chuckle. "Thanks."

Just then, Hye-yun joined them in the kitchen. "I'm supposed to help you move this stuff into the living room," she announced, grabbing as many cans of soda as she could. "The press conference is about to start."

They joined their friends in the living room. "Hey, make room on the couch for Su-jin," Sun-mi ordered. "After all, she's the guest of honor."

"I wish I weren't," Su-jin grumbled, but took the seat offered to her anyway.

On the screen, a newscaster was giving a short background on the scandal, complete with pictures that, fortunately, still had her face blurred out. After the scoop by _Inside Showbiz_, other gossip rags had plumbed their files and published their own pictures to cash in on the controversy, but so far no one had come forward claiming to know the mystery woman's identity.

Things, however, were starting to get more dangerous. Although Su-jin's personal information still wasn't public, pictures were popping up of her and Jeremy at the hospital, from the day that Ha-neul had collapsed on the set of AN JELL's last video. Everyone was focused on the fact that the couple was clearly together even then, but both girls were aware that it could just be a matter of time before someone made the connection between them and notice that Ha-neul was at all those events, too.

Su-jin touched her friend's shoulder. "I'm sorry that you might get dragged into this," she murmured, being careful not to draw their teammates' attention.

"It's OK," Ha-neul assured her with a small smile. "It hasn't happened yet."

* * *

Flashbulbs went off as AN JELL filed into AN Entertainment's largest conference room, wearing dark suits and somber expressions. They joined their manager at the long table set up on a dais, facing the throng of reporters, photographers and cameramen who had come to hear the definitive word on the scandal.

Once the band was seated, President Ahn stood and addressed the crowd. "Thank you all for coming," he said. "I know that this is on very short notice, but AN JELL felt that it was very important to reach out to their public through you, the media, and give their side on the scandal surrounding one of their members. As you can see, they're here now to give a statement, and we will allow some time later for questions." He nodded to the boys, indicating that they could now speak.

Jeremy swallowed as he pulled a folded-up sheet of paper from the inside pocket of his jacket. In all his time with AN JELL, he had been content to sit on the sidelines, contributing the occasional joke or cheerful remark while President Ahn and his hyungs handled all the serious stuff. Today, however, he sat front and center, and everyone was watching him.

"Good afternoon," he read from his paper, pausing to give the assembled press a polite smile. He had agonized all of last night over what he was going to say after that, and decided that the best option was the direct approach. "I guess we all know why we're here, so I don't have to tell you about the things that have been published about me in magazines and on the Internet. The only thing I really have to do now is admit that the rumors are true.

"It's true that I'm dating someone," Jeremy went on, raising his voice slightly to be heard over the excited murmurs erupting all over the room. "And it's true that we've known each other for some time now.

"I know that this may disappoint a lot of AN JELL's fans and I apologize to them for that. The girl I'm dating is concerned about the fans, too, which is why she doesn't want to officially become my girlfriend." He smiled ruefully. "It's difficult because I love her very much and I believe she loves me, too, but I guess I should consider myself lucky that I've found someone who understands my situation, and be glad that I can be with her even if it's not as often as I would like.

"I'm asking the media not to try finding out who this girl is," he concluded, "because she's not in showbusiness and I want to protect her privacy; and again, I want to apologize to the fans and ask for their understanding." He drew a shuddering breath as he finished his prepared speech and bowed to the assembly. "Thank you."

Reporters started clamoring to be the first to ask a question, but the buzz died down when Tae-kyung took the microphone. "On behalf of Kang Shin-woo, Go Mi-nam and myself," said AN JELL's leader, "I just want to say that we support Jeremy and his relationship. Everyone deserves to be loved and to be happy, and we're glad that Jeremy has the chance to experience that."

He paused to give the drummer a brief nod before continuing. "We would also like to ask our fans for their understanding and to continue supporting AN JELL," the vocalist added. "The things that happen in our personal lives will never change the fact that we love making music and putting on shows to make you happy. Thank you very much, we are now ready to take your questions."

* * *

The members of AN JELL were silent as they left the press room with their manager and proceeded to President Ahn's office, where Jeremy's parents had watched the proceedings on TV.

Upon seeing them, Lady Maitland rose from the sofa to give her son a hug. "You were wonderful out there," she told him. "Are you all right?"

"I'm fine," Jeremy answered with a small smile. On one hand, he was nervous about the impact that his confession might have on AN JELL, but at the same time it felt good to have the situation and his feelings for Su-jin out in the open. Just for that, he was willing to put up with anything.

He turned to President Ahn, who had wandered over to his desk to skim through some papers. "President Ahn," he said, "I just wanted to thank you for standing by me on this. I know that there's a very good chance that our sales will go down because of what I did, but I can try to make up for the difference with my savings."

The manager gave him a kind smile. "I appreciate your offer, Jeremy, but that won't be necessary. You're right that this scandal might cost us, but there's no need for you to do anything like that. AN Entertainment and AN JELL will survive."

"That's right," Shin-woo declared. "You're not facing this alone, Jeremy. We're a team, and we're all in this together."

The drummer smiled back. "Thank you, Shin-woo hyung."

Just then, President Ahn finished looking through his papers. "There doesn't seem to be anything urgent here," he said, then glanced at his telephone, which was lit up like a Christmas tree. "And I think Secretary Jeung can handle all the phone calls. Why don't we all go have a late lunch? You must come along, too, Lord and Lady Maitland. It's my treat."

After exchanging glances with her husband, Lady Maitland replied in Korean, "We'd love to join you, President Ahn, but you must let us treat all of you, as thanks for taking care of Jeremy while he's so far away from us."

Naturally, the manager wouldn't hear of it, and the group exited the room with the two of them having a polite disagreement over who would pick up the tab.

Jeremy and his father were the last to leave. _"Jeremy, a moment, please?"_ Lord Maitland asked.

The redheaded boy paused, looking a bit wary. The last time they had had a private discussion, it was to argue about Jeremy's decision to join an idol band. _"Yes, Dad?"_

To his surprise, his father said, _"I just wanted to say that your Mum was right — you did very well at the press conference."_

As always, the older man's expression was inscrutable; but there was an unmistakable glint of pride in his brown eyes, and his son knew that praise from him was as rare and genuine as the crown jewels. _"Thanks,"_ Jeremy said, a smile spreading slowly across his face.

_"I know that we had that... discussion when you decided to leave Britain and come here,"_ Lord Maitland went on quietly, _"but watching you face the press today showed me that I was wrong. I can't even begin to imagine how complicated this situation is going to become, but you're handling it like a man. Well done."_

_"Thanks, Dad. To be honest," _he admitted, ducking his head, _"this whole thing scares me, but I love making music and I love Su-jin, and I want to try to make it all work."_

_"I don't think you need to worry about Su-jin __—__ from what your mother says, I think she's strong enough to see this through."_

_"She is,"_ Jeremy confirmed with a chuckle.

_"And I don't think you need to worry about your album sales and things like that,"_ his father added. _"Real fans are like friends; they won't turn on you just because you're seeing someone."_

_"I hope so."_

_"Besides, your Mum and I are going to bring back copies of your album for all the relatives in Britain, so that should help."_ Suddenly, Lord Maitland smiled, and it became obvious where Jeremy had inherited his impish grin. _"I expect that they'll be far more entertaining than those dismal trade magazines your Uncle Gordon gives out every month, just because your cousin Penelope is the editor."_

Jeremy laughed; it was the first time in a long time that he had done so in his father's presence. _"Yeah, I'm sure it will. Let's go eat, Dad. I'm hungry."_

* * *

Out in the corridors, the other members of AN JELL trailed after their manager and Jeremy's mother, who were still bickering politely over who was going to pay for lunch. Both Mi-nam and Shin-woo were subdued, each caught up in his own thoughts, while Tae-kyung glanced over his shoulder occasionally, muttering whenever he saw that Jeremy and Lord Maitland still hadn't caught up.

Shin-woo touched Tae-kyung's arm as the vocalist turned back from doing just that. "If I ever had to admit that I was dating Ha-neul," he asked quietly, "would you do the same thing? Would you stand by us?"

"Of course," Tae-kyung replied without hesitation, then stopped short and gave the guitarist a penetrating stare. "You're not planning to go public, too, are you?"

The guitarist laughed. "No. There's no reason for us to admit we're dating, and besides, it won't be good for AN JELL to have that happen so soon after Jeremy's scandal." He sighed and gave his bandmate a rueful smile. "I was just wondering."

* * *

As AN JELL and their management feared, Jeremy's confession led a sizable number of fans to quit their fan club, and some to even turn against their former idols for disappointing them. However, as Lord Maitland had predicted, there were also those who remained loyal.

Fortunately for the band, the latter group included the fan club's officers, who were disappointed but had heeded Tae-kyung's request for understanding. They lost no time taking to the Internet to defend Jeremy and his right to be happy.

_"I'm sad, too,"_ Hyun-jae posted on her AN JELL blog, _"but more than that, I feel sorry for our oppas. They're always busy working, and I'm sure they get lonely. We should be glad that Jeremy oppa has found someone to love, and encourage them to be together."_

"You're absolutely right, Hyun-jae," Sayuri told her friend as the trio of diehard fans sat in their favorite Internet café, monitoring the public's reactions to the scandal. "I mean, it's not like they're getting married! There's still hope for us!"

The fan club president logged on to the band's official message board, where the scandal was (naturally) the hot topic of the moment. She skimmed quickly through the threads speculating on the mystery woman's identity and, finding nothing new, went to the ones containing the fans' thoughts on Jeremy's relationship.

She was glad to see that more and more fans were seeing reason, especially after she had started posting, but the anti-fans remained a vocal presence, and she took them to task again now.

_"If you really care about AN JELL,"_ she posted, _"then you would respect our oppas' wishes. I'm hurting, too, but more than that I want Jeremy oppa to be happy. The others in the band stand behind him and we, as their loyal fans, should do the same!"_

Ae-sook, the biggest Jeremy fan among the small group, took Sayuri's message to heart and was the very next person to speak up. _"What I don't understand is why this girl that oppa likes doesn't accept him as her boyfriend,"_ she wrote. _"It's nice that she's concerned about us, the fans, but if she really liked him, she would take him right away! Only an idiot would reject a member of AN JELL!"_

* * *

"Can you believe the nerve of those people?" Su-jin fumed. She and Ha-neul had finally braved the Internet to read what the fans were saying about Jeremy's scandal. The good news was that there didn't seem to be any danger of the girls' identities and Ha-neul's relationship with Shin-woo being discovered; the bad news was that there were still plenty of unpleasant things to read on the AN JELL websites. "How dare they call me an idiot?"

"It's only because you're not holding on to Jeremy the way they would have if they were in your place," the other girl pointed out.

"Still, they can't call me that if they don't know me!" She glared at the computer screen. "Maybe my first post on this message board should be to stop calling me names!"

Ha-neul moved the laptop away before the other girl could touch the keyboard. "You don't want to do that. We agreed when we registered that we're only going to lurk, remember? And we definitely can't have people finding out that you're the mystery woman."

"But—"

"Instead of thinking about what the fans have to say, why don't you just think about what Jeremy did at the press conference?" she suggested, and smiled. "He told the whole world that the two of you are dating, and that he loves you very much. That was really sweet, wasn't it?"

"I guess," Su-jin mumbled, blushing and hiding behind a handful of popcorn.

"It's obvious that he really cares about you. He's putting his career on the line because he wants the two of you to be together."

"Shin-woo would do the same thing if you asked him."

"You know I can't ask him to do that," her friend said, smiling sadly as she twisted her couple ring around her finger. "But Jeremy wants to hold on to you so badly that he did it without being asked. I don't think there's a better way for a celebrity like him to show you that he's serious about being your boyfriend."

"And now you're telling me that his efforts shouldn't be in vain and I should take him back, right?" she asked tartly.

Ha-neul nodded. "It could be much worse. People could have been completely against your relationship, but look — Tae-kyung said that AN JELL supports the relationship, and not all the fans hate you. At least, they think you should like Jeremy back."

"And if I don't?" Su-jin retorted, narrowing her eyes at the laptop, where the heated discussions on Jeremy and his mystery girlfriend had continued unabated. "Am I supposed to just take him back just because people say that I should?"

"Now you're just being difficult," her friend said, starting to sound impatient. "I think you've stalled long enough, and now you have to decide whether or not you're going to take Jeremy back as your boyfriend. If you like him, then take him back so that the two of you can be happy. And if you don't like him, then put him out of his misery and tell him to forget it.

"You have the ball now, Su-jin, and you had better make a move because you're holding up the game."

Su-jin shot her friend a disgruntled look. "Fine," she grumbled, snatching up her cellphone.

* * *

Practically everyone on the third floor of AN Entertainment was startled by a jubilant shout that rang down the corridor.

The shout originated from AN JELL's rehearsal studio, where Jeremy was doing a mad dance of joy. "I'm sorry!" he said into the cellphone he was holding to his ear. "I hope I didn't make you deaf! It's just that I'm so happy!

"We have to go out and celebrate!" he declared. "Where are you? At Ha-neul's house? OK, I'll try to get out of here early and figure out a place near there where we can meet! I'll text you! OK! Bye—I love you!"

"Good news?" Tae-kyung asked dryly as the redheaded boy hung up.

"Su-jin's taking me back!" the drummer announced, beaming and hopping around giddily. "I should spank her for waiting until after I proclaimed my love to the whole world, but I'm too happy!"

"Maybe you should still spank her anyway," Mi-nam suggested, then grunted as Shin-woo gave him a not-too-gentle nudge.

The guitarist smiled at Jeremy. "Congratulations, Jeremy. I'm glad it's all worked out for you."

"Don't mess it up this time," Tae-kyung advised.

"So, you're going to meet up with Su-jin later?"

Jeremy nodded. "That is," he remembered to add, "if it's OK with you if I leave practice early today?"

Tae-kyung gave him a severe look, but it was clear from the the amused twist to his lips that he didn't really mean it. "Yeah, it's fine. We'll just make up the time tomorrow. And," he went on, arching an eyebrow, "I guess that means that I can visit Mi-nyeo at the orphanage today."

"And that means Ha-neul will be left all alone at home," Shin-woo added, shaking his head. "Poor girl. I guess I should go over and keep her company."

Mi-nam gave his bandmates a disgruntled look. "Thanks for leaving me all alone, guys."

"_You're_ going to be alone?" Tae-kyung asked. "I thought your problem was going to be that you wouldn't be able to decide which girl in your directory to call today."

Once upon a time, that would have been true, but Mi-nam didn't feel like calling any of them that day — maybe even not ever again. They just didn't appeal to him anymore; and even though AN JELL had figured out how to deal with the crisis and it looked like everything was going to be all right, the wounds from Oh-lan's betrayal of their trust were still raw.

However, he wasn't going to tell that to his bandmates. Instead, he said, "Yeah, I thought about that, but chances are all they're going to talk about is Jeremy and his scandal. What's the point of going out with a girl if all she'll want to talk about is another guy?"

Jeremy laughed. "Well, if you do go out with anyone tonight, then you just tell them that I really am taken, but they can have you for a consolation prize."

Mi-nam balled up a piece of paper and tossed it at Jeremy, who caught it deftly and threw it back at the keyboardist. Soon, a full-on aerial battle was underway, with the two younger members of AN JELL throwing wadded-up paper, guitar picks and anything else that came to hand that Tae-kyung and Shin-woo couldn't take away.

Fortunately, they were interrupted before things went too far. They had just progressed to empty food wrappers when the door leading into the rehearsal space banged open and someone burst into the room. The band froze immediately, thinking it was Manager Ma come to break up the festivities, but it wasn't him.

It took them a while to recognize Yoon In-jung, the young photographer who worked with Oh-lan at _Inside Showbiz_, but when they did, AN JELL was instantly on the defensive. "What are you doing here?" Tae-kyung demanded, stepping forward and placing himself between In-jung and the others.

"I want to talk to you guys about what came out in the magazine," the photographer replied, sounding as though he had run all the way to the studio. Soon, it was clear that he had indeed run: hearing the sound of pounding feet — probably belonging to his pursuers — in the distance, he closed the door and locked it, blocking the only exit out of the room with his body.

"Do you really think we'll give you an interview after what you did to Jeremy?" Shin-woo asked as the other band members join in the confrontation.

"Yeah," Jeremy chimed in, folding his arms. "Don't you guys have enough exclusives from us already?"

In-jung looked puzzled at first, then he scowled. "This isn't an interview," he snapped, clearly no longer the awestruck AN JELL fan from their first meeting. "This is about you accusing Oh-lan noona of something she didn't do."


	17. I'll Be Good For You

**Disclaimer:** The AN JELL-verse belongs to the Hong sisters, creators of _You're_ _Beautiful_, and the "cat food" part from a scene in _Ain't She Sweet?_, a novel by Susan Elizabeth Phillips.

**Author's Notes:** Thank you very much to khar minah, piggyrabbit, Buru-beri-chan (welcome back!), hetalia27 (welcome back as well!), KAZU (dot) BOU and Luminous Circus for reviewing! (LC, I think I have to credit you with inspiring me to make the last part of this chapter better - it used to be one whole chunk of dialogue, so thank you for getting me to think about making it more manageable, and hopefully realistic :) )

I'm planning to post an epilogue (as well as other YB fanfics) after this, so please stay tuned!

_

* * *

Chapter Seventeen — I'll Be Good For You (*NSYNC)_

"And what is it, exactly, that she didn't do?" Tae-kyung asked, raising his voice slightly to make himself heard over the commotion in the production booth outside, where the security guards were clamoring to be let in.

"We all know what it is," In-jung told him flatly. "You think she was the one who leaked the story about Jeremy and his girlfriend to the magazine. She told me you accused her of doing that. Well, it wasn't her."

Mi-nam's heart gave a funny jolt at this piece of information, but he kept the scowl on his face. "Really?" he scoffed. "Do you have any proof?"

"Of course I do!" the photographer retorted. "For your information, Oh-lan noona hasn't had anything to do with the content of the magazine for the past few months because she was busy with your book project. And when she was finished writing the book, she quit _Inside Showbiz_. She's been on terminal leave ever since!"

The conviction in the young man's voice sounded very promising, but Mi-nam still suppressed the hope that had begun to well up inside him. Life at the orphanage, and then later as an idol trainee, had taught him not to get your hopes up, because there was always the chance that they could get dashed to bits. "That's a nice story, but then you media types are really good at that, aren't you? How do you know that she didn't tip off someone in your staff to write the story anyway?"

"She would never do that — especially since she's leaving the magazine to come and work here, at AN Entertainment."

At that point, the guards saw that nothing violent was going on and stopped banging on the door, so In-jung's last words rang clearly throughout the room.

After a moment of stunned silence to digest the revelation, Shin-woo broke into a small smile. "Well, if that's true, then Reporter Park couldn't have done it. Only a fool would do something that would get you in trouble with your future boss, and we all know Reporter Park is a pretty smart person."

_Yeah,_ Mi-nam thought, relief washing over him despite his best efforts to remain cynical. _She's pretty, and smart, and she'll never forgive me for this._

"You believe me?" In-jung sighed heavily and sagged against the studio door. "Oh, thank goodness. That was the only proof I had — I mean, if I had just said that another person was responsible, you might not have believed me, right?"

"Who's the one responsible?" Jeremy asked.

"It's one of our senior reporters, Kim Soon-ok, who was behind it." A look of distaste crossed the photographer's face. "He's been insufferable ever since the scandal broke."

Mi-nam had a sudden flash of insight. "The jerk at the bar!" he exclaimed.

"What?" his bandmates chorused, looking confused.

"He was at the restaurant where we went out to dinner after the sports campaign thing for the foundation. Oh—Reporter Park covered up for us then, pretending that, uh, Cookie Monster was her friend; remember, Jeremy?"

"Yeah, I remember that," the drummer confirmed.

"I guess Reporter Kim didn't believe noona when she said that," In-jung said as he took up the thread of the tale. "No wonder he suddenly became very interested in AN JELL."

"He probably noticed Cookie Monster appearing in quite a few pictures and put two and two together," Tae-kyung concluded.

The photographer nodded. "She's cute," he remarked.

"And she's mine," Jeremy snarled.

"Maybe not for long, once she finds out that you're calling her 'Cookie Monster' to other people," Tae-kyung told him.

_"Hyuuuung!"_ the drummer whined, pouting.

"But what about that picture of her and Jeremy walking and holding hands?" Shin-woo asked. "That wasn't at a public function."

"Reporter Kim has contacts everywhere," In-jung explained. "Cleaning ladies, hotel waiters, even cops. People that would probably escape notice. I guess one of them really came through for him with that picture."

"That sounds sleazy," Jeremy said with a grimace.

"Sleazy is Reporter Kim's style."

"Well, now that we all know the truth," Shin-woo said then, "maybe we should start thinking of ways to make it up to Reporter Park. I mean, we didn't sue her or anything like that, but we were wrong even to just think that she had anything to do with the scandal when she has always watched out for us."

Mi-nam blushed guiltily. Maybe the others hadn't done anything mean to Oh-lan, but _he_ sure had. "Where is she now?" he asked In-jung.

"She's at the _Inside Showbiz_ offices," the other young man replied. "It's her last day of terminal leave, so we're throwing her a farewell party. I'm supposed to be buying cake and drinks, but I came here instead," he admitted.

"Bring me there," he blurted out impulsively. "We'll pick up the stuff on the way. My treat."

In-jung looked startled at that, but eventually shrugged and agreed. The security guards in the production booth tensed when the lock in the door clicked open, then stared, flabbergasted, as Mi-nam escorted the intruder outside. "He came by to pick me up," the keyboardist explained blithely. "Sorry I forgot to alert you guys earlier."

Tae-kyung smiled crookedly when the pair had gone. "When I said once upon a time that a little distraction was in order," he told his other bandmates, "I had no idea that it would be Mi-nam who would wind up getting permanently distracted."

* * *

While In-jung was at AN Entertainment, reading the riot act to AN JELL, Oh-lan was indeed at the _Inside Showbiz_ offices. Even though she was technically on leave, she didn't mind coming in because it wasn't as though she was expected to put in a day's work. Besides, her co-workers were kind enough to put together a farewell party for her, and she didn't want to snub their efforts.

"We're going to miss you a lot, Oh-lan," said one of the receptionists. "You'll come and visit us sometimes, won't you?"

"Definitely," she promised, smiling. She was fairly sure that her new job would have her visiting or at least coordinating with all sorts of media outlets, including _Inside Showbiz_, so she wasn't going to completely lose touch with her friends at the magazine. "I'm sure you'll still see me around quite a bit, Ah-reum."

"And you have to treat us when you get your first salary from your new job," Jung-ah added. "We're sure you're going to do very well, so you have to share the bounty!"

"Yes, ma'am," Oh-lan laughed.

"At this point, we're supposed to drink a toast to your success," her uncle noted, "but In-jung isn't back yet with the drinks. What's keeping that kid?"

As if on cue, In-jung made his entrance, and he wasn't alone. Go Mi-nam strode beside him, his face like a thundercloud.

Oh-lan frowned at the AN JELL keyboardist even as the others started exclaiming over the surprise guest. What was he doing here? If he was going to ruin the occasion for her and her co-workers, she was going to kill him, even if it meant losing her new job! Just because he was a celebrity didn't mean that he was always right!

To her surprise, Mi-nam stormed past her and up to Soon-ok, who was standing on the fringes of the group. Then he drew back his fist and buried it in the senior reporter's stomach. "That one's for ratting out Jeremy," he growled, then went on to punch Soon-ok in the nose. "And that one's for being an asshole to Oh-lan!"

_"Go Mi-nam!"_ Oh-lan screeched, jumping to her feet as his victim crumpled to the ground. "Do you know what you just did? Does you know where you are?" She looked around wildly, at the desks with the all-too-convenient computers on them. "This could be all over the Internet in minutes!"

The others were shocked, but Jung-ah was quick to recover. "_What_ could be all over the Internet in minutes?" she asked innocently. "I didn't see anything."

Catching on, Ah-reum the receptionist nodded and chimed in, "I think it's right that you're resigning, Oh-lan. The stress of this job is making you see things."

In-jung placed the cake box and plastic bag of drinks on their makeshift buffet table, then looked down with surprise at Soon-ok, who was struggling to stand. Blood trickled from his nose. "Oh, Reporter Kim! Are you all right? That was a nasty fall you took down the stairs."

Spitting out a curse in reply, the injured man finally got to his feet and turned to Oh-lan's uncle. "Editor Park, are you going to let them do this to me?" he demanded of his boss.

Getting over his own surprise, the older man scowled. "I'm not surprised that you got punched for being an asshole, Soon-ok," he said, "but what's this about ratting out Jeremy? Do you mean to say that you were responsible for going behind my back with that article?"

"What do you mean, he went behind your back?" the news and features editor asked blankly. "Reporter Kim told me that he had already cleared it with you when he submitted it to me!"

Unfortunately for Oh-lan, she was going to miss out on the drama just as things were getting good because at that point, Mi-nam grabbed her arm and towed her away.

* * *

He hustled her into the stock room, situated in the back of the office and away from where everyone was gathered. To keep her from getting away, he kept himself between her and the locked door, just as In-jung had done in the studio earlier.

Remembering all too well what had happened the last time he took her away from her co-workers, Oh-lan wrested her arm from his grip and rounded on him. "Take me back there right now," she ordered. "Do you want the others to get ideas?"

"Practically everyone out there is on your side," Mi-nam pointed out calmly. "They won't say anything if you ask them to keep quiet, and I doubt if anyone's going to believe Reporter Kim now if he tries to blab."

"But you might still get me in trouble," she fretted, "and I haven't even started my new job yet!"

"Speaking of that new job, why didn't you tell me?"

"I started to!" Oh-lan snapped, and then subsided, her cheeks turning pink. "But then you kissed me and I forgot to finish."

"Oh." Grinning, he pushed off the door and moved towards her.

She squeaked as she backed into boxes of copy paper, and but recovered quickly and warded off his advance with a shove and a forbidding scowl. "I tried to tell you again, that day after the story came out," she added, "but you were too busy screaming at me to listen."

That brought him up short. "Oh," he said again, looking abashed. "Yeah, I... In-jung just told us that you weren't writing for the magazine anymore.

"I'm really sorry about, you know, not believing you when you said you weren't responsible for that story coming out," Mi-nam went on. "I should have known right away that you would never do that to Jeremy, even if you were still working for _Inside Showbiz_, but we were all caught up in wanting to protect him and Su-jin that I wasn't thinking straight."

"_You_ know how to think straight?" she asked, arching a skeptical eyebrow, then smiled thinly. "Well, the things you accused me of were very hurtful, but I guess it's good to know that all of you were rallying around Jeremy. That's what a real team should always do."

"I'm still not proud of what I did to you," he said quietly. "Do you think... you can give me another chance?"

Oh-lan stared at him thoughtfully for several moments, making him squirm. "I suppose that we should put all of that behind us," she said finally. "After all, it will be important for us to have a good working relationship in the future." She frowned when he frowned. "What's wrong?"

"That's not what I meant at all. I didn't come here because I wanted us to have 'a good working relationship,'" Mi-nam scoffed. His face grew hot when he realized what he had just blurted out, but there was no taking it back now. "I came here because..." He coughed, cleared his throat and drew himself up. "I came here because I like you," he told her matter-of-factly. "You know, for real."

Her jaw dropped. "I—we—" she sputtered, blushing as well. "You _do_ know that I'm leaving here to work for AN Entertainment, don't you?"

"Yeah, that's what In-jung said. So?"

"_So_, we can't, you know... date or whatever," she mumbled, pretending to be busy straightening the boxes she had disturbed earlier. "It wouldn't look good, especially to President Ahn."

"What President Ahn doesn't know won't hurt him," he pointed out. He had to admit that she had a point, but there had to be some way that they could balance a relationship with both their careers. "And you're good at keeping secrets, aren't you?"

It became distressingly clear that he had just said the worst possible thing when she lifted her chin, skewering him with a narrow-eyed glare. "I thought that this whole mess with Jeremy and Su-jin has made it very clear that I'm much better at it than you think," she said coldly. "Don't worry, I won't breathe a word of this to anyone. In fact, we can both act as though this conversation never happened. Now, let me out of here."

* * *

Mi-nam wished he could have kept her in that closet until she relented, but he didn't want her accusing him of holding her hostage or something (especially in front of all those reporters who were so obviously her friends), so he had no choice but to let her leave. However, he wasn't going to just give her up without a fight, which was why he was spending the evening at the AN JELL mansion very deep in thought.

That totally wasn't like him, which was why Mi-nyeo was instantly concerned. "Is anything wrong, oppa?" she asked as she sidled up to her twin. Jeremy and Su-jin's first date as a reunited couple had taken them to the supermarket, where the redheaded boy (wearing a disguise, of course,) had bought a load of goodies for a special celebratory dinner. The other AN JELL members and their girlfriends were pitching in to help prepare the meal.

"You've been moping around all evening," she went on, looking worried.

"And he's not helping with the cooking!" Tae-kyung added, glancing up from the carrot he was slicing.

"Are you feeling all right?" Mi-nyeo asked her brother.

"I'm fine," he replied with a small smile. "I'm just—"

"He's in love with Reporter Park!" Jeremy announced with a grin.

The girls gasped. Su-jin was the first to recover from her shock. "Omo, you two would be so cute together!" she squealed.

"And she's nice, too," Mi-nyeo added approvingly.

"Thanks," Mi-nam said with a dagger look at Jeremy, who grinned back unrepentantly.

"Does she like you back?"

"I think so, but—" Suddenly, he jumped to his feet. _"That's it!"_

"What's it?" His sister squeaked and looked at him, mystified, when he grabbed her in a hug. "Are you OK, oppa?"

"I'm great! Hang on, I have to make a call!"

* * *

Moments later, Oh-lan was startled by the ringing of her cell phone. She dropped her book and jumped, startling Genghis, who had been napping on her lap. She frowned when she saw the caller's name, irritated both at him and the giddy excitement she felt at the thought of speaking to him.

"Hey," Mi-nam greeted her, suave as ever, when she came on the line.

"Hello, Go Mi-nam," she replied in a coolly polite tone of voice. "How may I help you this evening?"

"You don't want to date me because you think it won't be professional."

"Well, congratulations for finally realizing that," she said, still sounding polite although the politeness was starting to smack more of sarcasm. "I must have spent ten minutes trying to explain that to you this afternoon."

"Yeah, you said it over and over," he agreed, and chuckled. The sound was as deep and dark as the chocolates she couldn't help indulging in occasionally, and it told her that she was in serious trouble. "But not once have you said that you won't date me because you don't like me."

Oh-lan swallowed. "OK," she managed to reply, managing to keep her voice steady even though her body had begun to feel hot and cold at the same time. "Another reason why I don't want to date you is because I don't like you."

"You don't really mean that."

"No, it's true," she assured him earnestly. "I just didn't say so right away because I didn't want to hurt your feelings. The truth is that you're incredibly infuriating." _Especially now that you're winning._

The rat had the nerve to actually _laugh_ at her. "No offense, Reporter Park, but you're not as good at lying as you are at keeping secrets."

She scowled, and was strongly tempted to snipe at him about who was the better liar between the two of them, but instead she said, "OK, _if_ — purely for the sake of argument — I did care about you a little bit, that's all the more reason why we can't get together. _If_ I did like you, then it would be selfish of me to put you in danger of ending up in the same situation as Jeremy and Su-jin. It wouldn't be fair to you, and it wouldn't be very smart considering that my career is now dependent on yours."

Mi-nam laughed at her again. "Sorry, but you're not getting rid of me that easily. First of all, I'm not worried about getting found out like Jeremy and Su-jin, because with you working at AN Entertainment we won't have to find ways to see each other outside the office. Second, _if_ you did like me, then you'd want me to be happy, and the only way that will happen is if we're together."

Her heart gave a funny little lurch. "I... make you happy?"

He cleared his throat. "Yeah, you make me happy," he replied, sounding as uncertain as she felt. "You get me to read and think about things... and you keep my feet on the ground. I don't know what I'll do if you're not by my side," he concluded. "Probably do stupid things and get into all kinds of trouble — and that won't be good for my career _or_ yours, so you had better stick around."

Oh-lan couldn't help but smile at that. As incredibly infuriating as Mi-nam was, she couldn't help being at least a little bit amused over how neatly he was turning her arguments against her. One thing was for sure, life would never be boring when they got together.

_If_ they got together, she amended, blushing.

"So..." he said softly when she didn't say anything, "what do you think?"

"I _think_..." She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. "I'll think about it, all right?"

* * *

Oh-lan thought about it, and thought about it. She was still thinking about it even after she started her new job at AN Entertainment.

It was obvious that Mi-nam didn't believe in giving her the space with which to make her decision. Besides calling whenever he got the chance, he also bombarded her with flowers and cake not just at home, but also at the office. In the beginning, it was easy enough to pass them off to her co-workers as good-luck tokens from family and friends, but not so much after a couple of weeks.

"Your family must really love you," remarked Yang Chun-hye, one of the other girls in the department, as a messenger brought up yet another cake from a fancy bakery.

"You have no idea," Oh-lan replied dryly.

"Well, we're really glad that they do," someone else joked. "Because of you, there's almost always something to eat around here!"

Just then, the door opened and Shin-woo came in. He exchanged polite greetings with the other PR people on his way to Oh-lan's desk. "Hi, Reporter—I mean, Publicist Park," he greeted her pleasantly. "How are you today?"

"I'm doing all right, thanks," she replied, smiling at him. Besides knowing him to be a nice person, Shin-woo was also a great favorite in the PR Department, mostly because he didn't give them problems by doing anything stupid. "How about you?"

"I'm all right, too, thank you." He held out a folded piece of paper. "I was asked to bring you this."

The thought of one of AN Entertainment's major talents acting as an office messenger was a bit puzzling, but Oh-lan supposed that Shin-woo was just being kind and doing someone a favor, so she took the note and opened it.

There were only two words written on the paper.

_WILL YOU_

She looked up blankly. "What in the world... ?"

His smile widened into a grin and he beat a hasty retreat. "Bye! Have a nice day!"

* * *

An hour later, Jeremy turned up with the second installment, which said:

_GO OUT_

Oh-lan quickly put two and two together and let out a little groan when she realized who was responsible for the cryptic messages.

"Yeah," the drummer snickered, speaking in a low voice so that no one else would overhear, "just between you and me, noona, I think it's really cheesy, too."

"It's not that," she answered, blushing. "I mean, you're right, it _is_ cheesy, but now he has the rest of you involved as well. It's so embarrassing."

"Don't be embarrassed!" He waggled his eyebrows and gave her a mischievous grin. "We wouldn't help if we didn't think you'd be good for him."

"Are you working on something for AN JELL, Oh-lan?" Chun-hye asked after Jeremy had gone.

"Um, yes," she answered, stowing the note with the other one in her desk drawer. Fortunately, she wasn't lying. "President Ahn is asking me to organize some interviews for the band."

"I guess he thought of some more reporters he wants you to contact."

"E-exactly," she agreed with a weak laugh.

* * *

Tae-kyung turned up shortly after lunch. First, he checked to make sure that Oh-lan was alone before going all the way inside the office and handing her the third note.

_WITH ME_

"Thank you, Tae-kyung," she said with an embarrassed smile. Judging from the disgruntled look on his face, he wasn't happy about being pressed into messenger service; and she supposed it was only right to show appreciation for his efforts.

"If I may," he answered, his voice just slightly more pleasant than a grumble, "I strongly recommend that you just say yes. You know he's not going to give up until he gets what he wants."

She supposed this means that she also had the AN JELL leader's stamp of approval, and laughed self-consciously. "I'll take that into consideration."

* * *

Oh-lan expected Mi-nam himself to turn up after that, but he called her instead. "Park Oh-lan," he said in a nasal voice that she guessed was supposed to sound automated, "I have your cat. If you want to see him alive ever again, come to Room 216 right now."

She frowned. She hadn't brought Genghis to work that day; and there was no way he could have taken the cat from her apartment, unless he was a stalker and a criminal. "Are you serious?"

"Come to Room 216 or else he will be... cat food." He hung up without another word.

"Is there a problem?" asked the department's secretary, who was on her way back to her desk with another piece of cake.

"Something about a problem with the reprint of the book, I think," Oh-lan improvised quickly. "I'm not sure, though — the message was kind of garbled. I should go check it out."

Room 216 proved to be incredibly hard to find. After a couple of wrong turns, she was grumbling just like Tae-kyung, and toying with the idea of just giving up, which would have the added benefit of making Mi-nam wait for nothing. However, something compelled her to keep looking. It was probably the fact that the wild goose chase was giving her the opportunity to get away from her desk for a while, she thought. _Yeah, that's probably it._

After a seeming eternity, she finally found the room, and rapped on the door marked "216." It opened and an arm reached out to pull her inside.

"You really have a thing for supply closets, don't you?" Oh-lan remarked when she found herself standing with Mi-nam inside a tiny storage room.

"They have ambiance," he told her loftily. She arched an eyebrow, and he hastened to add, "And yes, I know what the word 'ambiance' means. I looked it up."

That got him a smile. "Good for you," she praised him, then glanced around. "I don't see Genghis."

"Obviously, it was all just to get you to come here." He grinned. "And you either fell for it, which I don't think is possible, or you knew it was BS but showed up anyway."

His grin widened when she blushed, but of course she didn't tell him which of his guesses was right. "If I'm not here to retrieve my cat," she said instead, "then why am I here?"

"Two things," he told her. "The first is that I have to give you this." "This," of course, was a piece of paper that said:

_?_

"I should always end a sentence with a punctuation mark, right?" Mi-nam explained when she looked up from the note.

That got him a laugh. "Yes, you do," she said agreed easily. "OK, so we've got that out of the way — what's the other thing?"

"The second thing is..." He stepped a little closer to her. "Now that I've asked you a proper question, what's your answer?"

Oh-lan blushed again, fidgeting with the note. For a moment, he thought he finally had her right where he wanted her, but she raised her chin and looked him squarely in the eye despite the color in her cheeks. "What's in it for me?"

"What's in it for you?" he repeated with an incredulous laugh. Of course she wasn't going to give in without a fight. "Hel-_lo_, I'm freakin' _Go Mi-nam_!"

She shrugged. "So?"

"That means I'm extremely charming and good-looking," he explained patiently, and noted that she didn't disagree. "And it means I make pretty good money, which means I can buy you lots of cool presents — which I'm sure you've noticed."

"Yeah, not a day went by without my noticing that. All the girls at the office love the cake, by the way."

"I'm glad. Being freakin' Go Mi-nam also means I travel a lot, so I'll be out of your hair most of the time. And that I'm a really good kisser."

"Yeah, I know a bit about that, too," she mumbled, looking embarrassed.

Mi-nam chuckled. "And it means I'm absolutely crazy about you, and I'll never cheat or lie to you. I mean," he added hastily when she narrowed her eyes at him, "I know I did it before, but it won't ever happen again."

"It better not."

"Yes, ma'am," he agreed humbly. "So... will you go out with me?"

"Maybe."

"Oh, come on!" he exclaimed. "We've been over this a thousand times already, and you've had more than enough time to think about things. Who knows, next time it might just be too late."

Oh-lan's eyes widened, which he took to be a good sign. "What do you mean?" she demanded, sounding gratifyingly alarmed. "Are you giving ultimatums now? If you're getting sick of this whole thing, then why do you keep doing it?"

"I'm not getting sick of anything," he soothed her, and quirked an eyebrow. "What I mean is, even though that jerk I punched at your farewell party is too busy trying to get his credibility back to do anything about it, he might still sue me for assault someday. If I go to jail because of you, I should have something to show for it, right?"

"Oh." Caught off-guard, she tried to salvage her dignity. "Yes," she agreed casually, "I suppose you do."

Mi-nam's heart started to pound. "Really?" he asked, a hopeful smile dawning on his face.

She blushed, but gave him an answering smile. "That was incredibly stupid, but it was also really sweet."

"If I had known that that was all it would take to convince you, then I would have done it a lot sooner." He pulled Oh-lan into his arms, grinning when she didn't resist. "After all, nothing says 'I love you' like a punch in the nose."


	18. I Love the Way You Love Me

**Disclaimer:** The AN JELL-verse belongs to the Hong sisters, creators of _You're_ _Beautiful_.

**Author's Notes:** At long, long last, here's the epilogue. I had actually debated on whether or not to still have one, because it's short and feels a bit tacked-on, but thought it would be a good lead-in to the next batch of YB fics that I'm working on ;) It will be a while before I post any new multi-chapter stuff, though - I need to actually write it first!

Deepest thanks to piggyrabbit, Comet Wong, Luminous Circus, KAZU (dot) BOU and khar minah for all the great feedback and support. I can't believe we've made it through another one, and I hope you'll stay tuned for the rest that will eventually come :)

_

* * *

Epilogue — I Love the Way You Love Me (Boyzone)_

"Watch me, Appa! I'm dancing!"

"I can see that, Seong-min. Very nice."

Oh-lan paused in the middle of her writing to glance at her husband and make sure that he really was watching. _"Psst!"_

Mi-nam paused in the middle of pouring himself a glass of water from the pitcher on the kitchen counter and gave her a mild look. "I was watching before I got myself a drink."

Ordinarily, she would have been suspicious; but she knew that if there was one girl he would never, ever lie to, it was their daughter. "Whatever you say, dear," she answered sweetly.

He chuckled. "I love hearing you say that."

As he finished pouring his drink, Mi-nam's glance fell on the photographs of his parents, which had been enlarged and now occupied prime spots on the wall leading into the living room. Over the years, he had read many things in Omma's smile, but all he could see now was pride. He was sure that wherever she was, she was proud of him and his sister, of the lives and families they had managed to build for themselves. Perhaps she and his father were together and watching their granddaughter dance right now.

He smiled back at the picture and carried glasses of water out onto the terrace, giving one to Oh-lan, who sat on the wicker sofa with her laptop balanced carefully across her knees.

"Thanks," she said, moving the computer to the coffee table and taking a sip.

"You're welcome." Kissing the top of her head, he sat down beside his wife and reached over to rub her pregnant belly, grinning when the baby inside moved. "I don't know how you can still use a laptop with this in the way."

She gave him a wry smile. "Very, very carefully."

_"Appa!"_ Seong-min cried in her piping voice. "You weren't watching!" She stamped her small foot, and Mao, the cat cradled in her arms, yowled as if he, too, were complaining about their lack of audience. (It was more likely, though, that he was complaining about having to act as dance partner.)

"I _was_ watching," he told her. "You were very good. Maybe we should sign you up for ballet lessons."

As always, Go Mi-nam knew just how to placate an agitated female and the little girl's rosebud mouth curved in a smile. "Really? Yay!"

He grinned as she and the cat began hopping around with joy. "I take it you'd like that a lot."

"Yes! I want to dance ballet and wear a tutu and a crown!"

"Sure, and we'll get Mao his own tutu, too."

"Good luck with finding a ballet costume for a cat," Oh-lan murmured.

He shrugged with the air of supreme self-confidence that alternately amused and exasperated her. "Hey, if I can't buy one, maybe I can ask Mi-nyeo to make one. You know she'd do anything for her niece, especially since she doesn't have any girls of her own."

"Maybe she and Tae-kyung will have one someday."

"Yeah, maybe."

They turned back to watch Seong-min dance. It wasn't hard to imagine her as a little fairy princess gamboling through an enchanted forest, with flowers on her dress and dewdrops on her feet. She even had the requisite (loudly protesting) animal friend.

Tears stung Oh-lan's eyes, partly due to her pregnancy but mostly because of her deep and abiding love for her family. "She's so beautiful," she murmured. "I can't believe she's ours."

Mi-nam gave her one of his trademark cocky grins, but there was a world of adoration in his eyes. "I can."

THE END


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